Safe
by beautifulpreservation
Summary: Sequeal to Oldtech/Newtech
1. Chapter 1

I stare out the window at the scene below. The cluster of chairs, the gaggle of people roaming around, the pathway lined with bunches of white calla lilies and blue cornflowers, a trio of musicians playing a soft tune that was wafting in through the barely open window, a handful of old acquaintances, some of my new surrogate family, and Steve…honestly I could probably spot him in a crowd anywhere. Individually, all of these things wouldn't normally send my stomach into flip-flops. Today though, today in that little scene, in just under an hour, I would be marrying Steve.

Both of us had agreed, once the planning started, that the whole day was going to be as low-key as possible. With news outlets and the few fanatics that seemed to always know what the Avengers were doing, we decided to escape to the Smokey Mountains, to the home I primarily grew up in, to hold the ceremony. Both the ceremony and reception were being held in the backyard of the large Federal style home. The large backyard was able to accommodate an area to hold the ceremony and a tent (complete with dancefloor) without feeling too cramped.

A knock on the door breaks me out of my reverie. I quietly yell for the person to come in without turning to see who it was; I had a guess at who it was though. "You stare out that window for too long and Rogers just may catch a glimpse of you," Natasha's voice fills the room before I hear the door shut with a soft click.

"Well, he already did see me this morning," I say as I turn around. Natasha was wearing a deep blue off the shoulder dress with some dimensional pleating along one side. I didn't officially have a maid of honor or bridesmaid, but Natasha had taken up some of the duties that a maid of honor would normally do. "Happens when you share a bed."

Natasha just shakes her head in amusement as we both move towards the middle of the room. I turn to face the window again, this time letting Natasha close the zipper of my dress and hook the pearl buttons that covered the zipper. "Has he seen the dress though?" I shake my head as I let my hands come to rest on my hips. My dress…I don't think I could've found a more perfect dress. The dress, which was ivory over light gold, had lace appliqués that trailed down the A-line skirt, illusion lace made up the three-quarter sleeves and V-neckline which had a small cluster of crystals at the point. "Well, then I think you two are safe."

I let out a quiet laugh as I feel her deft fingers working their way up the dress. "Thank you, again, for helping me with this."

"And thank you for not asking me to make a speech later on." I could practically hear the smirk on her face. "Listen, while I have you on your own, I have something I want to say." My eyes widen a fraction, what could she want to say to me. "When you and Roger's came back and told us all that you were getting married…I thought you were crazy. Though, honestly, I've always thought you two were crazy. Relationships in this line of work rarely work out. But you two…" When I feel her fingers stop, I turn around to face her. Gone was any trace that the red-head in front of me was a world-class super spy. Instead, she looked like a woman whose two best friends were getting married. "You two will be just fine."

Dang it, I could already feel the tears prickling at the corners of my eyes. "Alright, no more talk like that or else this makeup won't make it to the altar." Natasha just rolls her eyes at me. I wave a dismissive hand at her as I start to walk over to the vanity along the far wall. "Ready for the veil?"

I sit down on the small bench as Natasha grabs the veil that was laid out on the bed. "You never did tell us where you got this from," she says as she walks over to stand behind me once again, the filmy gauze of the veil draped over her arm.

"It was actually my mom's." Natasha actually pauses to stare at me in the mirror. I tell her how when they had died, everything had been auctioned off. Daniel, without telling me about it, had tracked down and bought back a few items for me; the veil included. "He gave it to me in a box of their stuff when I graduated from MIT."

Natasha doesn't say anything, just gives me a small smile as she starts fixing the veil again. I watch her in the mirror as she pins the brooch of the veil, adorned with tiny sapphires and rubies (my birth mother was a very colorful person) to the artfully twisted bun at the nape of my neck. Once it's secure, she drapes the top layer of the veil over my head. When I stand, the front of the veil hangs down, the small lace edging level with my hips. The back of the veil trails behind me and stops at the end of the train of the dress.

Natasha slips out of the room for the briefest of seconds before coming back in and telling me that they were ready for me downstairs. I follow Natasha down the stairs and then stop in the family room at the back of the house. Before she goes outside, she throws me a wink and one last smile. Through the light blue gossamer covering the back doors and windows, I see everyone moving to sit in the white plastic seats. In front of all of them, I see Steve's form move to stand by the preacher. The preacher from the nearest town, where Daniel and I would rarely attend a service, had graciously agreed to do the ceremony. When I hear the music die down, I see the outlines of Clint and Bruce move to stand in front of the doors I would walk out of. I was walking myself down the aisle, but I didn't mind. Seconds later, the trio of musicians start again, this time playing a slow version of Canon in D. I count to five and right on cue, Bruce and Clint open the doors.

The crisp spring air of the Tennessee mountains swirls around me as I step outside onto the porch. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light the setting sun was casting over the backyard, my eyes immediately connect with Steve. I could never properly describe the look on his face as I walk down the aisle towards him. He was happy, so happy, a look of shock, mixed with some anticipation; all these emotions were running all over his face, yet his stare was cool, unwavering. I felt as if I were floating down the aisle. It may sound corny, but it really was as if everyone else melted away; it was just me and Steve there.

This was our wedding day.

xXxXx

"Okay, you were right, having an open mic for people to give speeches was a bad idea," I say to Steve as everyone in the tent roars in laughter. Tony had just delivered what he called his best man speech, even though Steve didn't have a best man, complete with a very embarrassing story about walking in on me and Steve. I prop my elbows on the table in front of me as I press my fingers tips to my cheeks. I was blushing so much my cheeks actually felt hot. Steve gives me a sympathetic chuckle as he lightly squeezes my knee and presses a kiss to my temple.

When the laughter dies down, Tony continues on. "Yes, thankfully they've both learned to lock doors now. Anyway, this has just really been a beautiful day and in our line of work it's nice, and rare, when we get to celebrate a day like this and I couldn't think of two people who deserve it more. Plus, now Rhiannon can never quit her job as our cyber security girl." I roll my eyes playfully as everyone laughs lightly. "Let's raise our glasses and toast the bride and groom. To Cap and Rhiannon!" The attendees repeat the toast as they lift their glasses in the air. Someone starts tapping on their glass, prompting everyone else to start in as well. Without hesitation, Steve and I both turn our faces towards each other and kiss. After a few seconds, Tony interrupts us. "Alright you two, save it for the honeymoon. I think it's time now though that we got a little party started with some dancing. Cap, you and your new old lady want to start us off with the first dance?"

Steve gives Tony a little salute as we both stand. Both of us make our way to the center of the dancefloor after I stop to let Natasha pin up the bustle on my dress. I give Steve a little smirk as we come to a stop in the middle of the dance floor. The lights in the tent go down as strands upon strands of white and twinkle lights come on, giving the dancefloor a soft glow. In a moment of weakness I had agreed to let Steve pick our first dance song. We hadn't even talked about it yet when he came to ask me about it. _The song you pick is supposed to kind of set the tone for what you want your marriage to be like, or a song that has a lot of meaning or a message for each other,_ I had told him. When I agreed to let him pick it out, he decided that he wanted to keep it secret from me. According to Natasha, he had been searching for "the perfect song" for weeks. Steve and I both move close to each other, Steve resting a hand on my waist and I resting one on his shoulder. Our other hands join together and Steve pulls them both close to his chest, right over his heart. Half a beat later a slow guitar melody starts and we start swaying in time with the music. With just the first few lines, I know Steve has picked the perfect song for us:

 _I wasn't lookin' for you_

 _But you found me just like you were made to_

 _And it's crazy know to think about how we almost live without each other…_

 _Love spendin' all my time_

 _Lying right here by your side_

 _A place that I can always stay_

 _Oh baby say you'll always stay_

 _Cause you, you make me feel safe_


	2. Chapter 2

In the back of my mind, while planning the honeymoon, I had wondered how Steve would do with it. Even when we had our getaway in Maine, he was calling back to the Tower every day or calling Sam to check in on things. Surprisingly though, he was taking to it like a fish to water. The island of Corsica seemed to agree with him. The small island, off the coast of France in the Mediterranean, had a nice mixture of mountainous wooded area with white sand beaches. With it being April, the island was practically devoid of tourist and with our villa set away from the nearest village near the beach it was like Steve and I were in our own little world.

Being married to Steve didn't seem any different to how it had been before, but it felt different. He seemed more attentive, I definitely hadn't seen him smile this much in a long while, and he seemed more at ease. I, myself, was beyond blissfully happy. For the first time, in a long, long time, I felt like I belong somewhere, to someone. The same threats still loomed over us and nothing had really changed in the world, but I felt safer.

Two weeks into the honeymoon, we planned on staying for two weeks after spending a week in Paris, I found myself flitting through the yellow and white kitchen fixing dinner while Steve sat out on the patio, more than likely sketching in his sketch book. He had already filled up one sketch book while we were here. I stood at the sink, rinsing off some spinach, when I suddenly felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I look behind me to see if maybe Steve was trying to sneak up on me. But he wasn't, he was still out on the patio, sketching away. My head turns back to the front and my eyes immediately look out the window above the sink. When I see the branches of the trees and bushes outside the window move more than they should, I drop the colander of spinach and let out a little shriek. Steve was behind me in a hot second.

"What's wrong?" His hands protectively wrap around the tops of my arms as my body subconsciously backs up against him.

"I don't know," I shake my head, still staring out the window. Everything was still, _had I just imagined it?_ "I felt like someone was watching me…then the branches outside moved- Steve where are you going?" I whisper/yell after him as he dashes to the closet by the front door and grabs his shield out. He couldn't go anywhere without the shield, and the rational part of my brain was thankful for that. Without answering me, he jogs out the back door, easily jumping off the patio and out of sight.

I stand in the kitchen, twisting my wedding band and engagement ring around and around as I wait for Steve to come back. About ten minutes later, he comes back in from the way he went out. "You said you saw the branches move?" he asks. I nod my head. His lips straighten out to a flat line. "I didn't see anything out there. Maybe Tony can send a legionnaire to sweep-"

"No, Steve, its fine," I cut him off, holding up my hands. He starts to say something but I cut him off. "Its fine, I swear. It very well could've been an animal or I could've imagined it. There's no need to call out the Avengers for this."

Steve's nostrils flare slightly as he takes a deep breath and releases it. "I'd feel better if we did." I raise an eyebrow at him. He knew what I was thinking. "Alright," he secedes. "But let's eat inside tonight, alright?"

* * *

Once I was sure Rhiannon was deep enough asleep, I slip my arm out from under her and get out of the bed. I swore the woman could sleep through a fire fight going on right above her. I still stay quiet though, as I slip out of the room and onto the back patio and shut the sliding door until it was just barely open a crack. I wanted to be able to keep an eye on my wife, sound asleep in our bed. A half smile creeps onto my face as I pull up the contact I wanted to call. _My wife,_ I loved that phrase.

When the call finally connects, the person on the other end answers in surprise. "Steve?" Sam sounded bewildered. "What are you doin man?"

"Hey Sam," I greet him back, ignoring the question. "How's everything going?"

"It's goin great," Sam says, surprise still in his voice. "What I want to know is why are you calling me while you're supposed to be on your honeymoon? Isn't it like one in the morning over there?"

I let out a sigh. "It is, which is why I'm calling you now. Rhiannon's asleep." I quickly recount to him what happened while Rhiannon was making dinner. "I went out to investigate, but of course there was no one there. I did find a partial shoe print. Is there any way to analyze it or something?"

"Yeah, there is," Sam says, the surprise finally gone from his voice. "And you know who is great at that sort of thing… _your wife."_

"I can't tell here about this Sam, I told her I didn't see anything." Sam asks me for my reasoning. "I think…I think it may be Bucky…"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yeah…that would probably piss her off." Sam says. I agree with him. Rhiannon was still sore about Bucky; I couldn't blame her though, the Winter Soldier had killed her father. She didn't say anything about me trying to locate him; but I was wise enough not to mention anything about it to her. "If you got a picture of the print, send it my way and I'll see what I can do with it." I thank Sam and tell him I owe him one. "Yeah, yeah, now get back to your wife." He may have been chastising me, but I could hear the slight smile in the statement. I thank him again and tell him I'll see him in about a week.

After the call ends, I text the picture of the shoe print to him. I knew that the print wouldn't be able to confirm whether it had been Bucky outside of our window. It was more of a gut-feeling I was going on. As I look back up from my phone, I stare at Rhiannon through the glass door. She lay in the exact same spot I had left her in; one of her legs was out from under the covers, the other one no doubt bend up towards her chest, the comforter on the bed was bunch up around her face, acting as a second pillow. As quietly as I had left, I slink back inside, this time shutting and locking the door behind me. Once I'm back in bed, I throw the sheet over myself before wrapping an arm around my wife's waist and pulling her close to me. She still doesn't stir from the movement. My eyes scan the room one last time, making sure nothing was out of place; before I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you for reading! Please, please review!_

 _Mo81367: The song is called Safe by Katie Armiger! It's a few years old, but I thought it fit Steve and Rhiannon quite nicely :)_


	3. Chapter 3

"I mean, we are married now…I'd like some privacy," I say, sitting the plate of food down in front of Steve.

I hear him thank me as I turn back to grab our cups of coffee off the island in the kitchen. We were back in New York, our honeymoon officially over. After the kitchen window incident, nothing else out of sorts happened. Now, though, we were deciding if we should move into the Tower, where Steve officially resided before we married, or find a place of our own. "We would have privacy." Steve says as I sit down at the table cattycorner to him. I had a feeling he wanted to live in the Tower more than he was letting on. "Tony offered us a whole apartment."

"A whole apartment, at the Tower, that any of the team members could waltz into day or night," I point out. "Plus, even if we did have a security system that we could lock our apartment with, the whole building is plugged in with JARVIS so Tony could more than likely easily override it."

"I'm sure if we told them to leave us alone they would," Steve says. His argument sounded weak though. I simply raise an eyebrow at him as we begin to eat our breakfast. "I just don't think we need a place this big," Steve says about halfway through his meal. I pause my own eating as he looks at me. "I get that Daniel left you this place so that's why you have it. But I just don't think we, just the two of us, need somewhere this big."

I don't respond verbally; instead just nod my head as we keep eating. While we finish eating, I mull an idea over in my head. Once we're finished eating and we bring our plates over to the sink, I share my idea with Steve. "What if we find a place in Brooklyn?"

Steve peers at me at for a moment; I think I've stunned him. "Brooklyn?"

"Yeah, Brooklyn," I say. I move to pour myself another cup of coffee, this time in a travel mug. "We could find something smaller. It'd be more of a commute, but it'd be ours." I knew Steve would have a hard time turning down moving to Brooklyn. He had mentioned multiples times about thinking of moving back there. "We don't have to decide right away. I mean the sooner the better…but it's not immediate, right?"

When I turn back towards him, he's still staring at me. After a second, he shakes his head once, as if clearing away a thought. "Yeah, nothing immediate. But I'll think about it, yeah."

I give him a smile as I go up on my toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Come on, we got to get to work."

* * *

"You dropped the Brooklyn bomb on him?" Natasha says. I nod my head, keeping my eyes trained on the computer screen in front of me. I was doing some configuring, trying to find Loki's scepter.

"There was no bomb dropping," I say, rolling my eyes. "It was just an idea that came to me while we were eating."

Natasha snorts a little in laughter. "An idea that you knew he couldn't say no to," she points out. I shrug my shoulder. "You know Brooklyn is home to him. I'm surprised you'd offer to go across the Hudson though." I finally look away from my screen to raise an eyebrow at her. "I've never even seen you outside Manhattan."

"Are you calling me prissy?" I turn my chair so that I'm facing her full-on.

She smirks at me from the couch where she was working on her tablet. "You did have that whole Blair Waldorf vibe going when I first met you..."

I open my mouth to argue with her when Clint and Steve step off the elevator into my office. "Am I prissy?" I ask both of them.

Clint laughs as Steve shoots Natasha a _what did you say_ look. "Of course you are," Clint says, point blank. I cross my arms over my chest as my eyebrows scrunch together.

"I am _not_ prissy," I say. Clint shakes his head and laughs again as he sits on the couch next to Natasha. I turn my attention to Steve. "Steve, tell them I'm not prissy!" When he doesn't answer right away, my mouth drops open. "Traitor! You all are such traitors!"

Steve shoots the two on the couch an annoyed look. "Being prissy isn't necessarily a bad thing-"

"Until it comes to doing any hard work," Clint mutters.

I press a button on my computer, sending my work I had done so far to Tony and Bruce. "You know what, that's fine." I shut down my computer system as I stand up from my desk. "You think I'm so prissy, don't do any hard work—find your own damn scepter." I grab up my work bag from the chair by my desk as I start to head towards the elevators.

"Rhiannon…" Steve was definitely at a loss for the whole situation.

"I'll be back later," I say stepping onto the elevator once it arrived at the floor. Before anyone could say anything, the doors shut. I don't know why the comment irked me so much. Maybe working around all these (and being married to one) "superheroes" was making me feel inadequate. I knew I was valuable to the team…to an extent. About an hour later, I found myself walking around Hell's Kitchen. I had never actually been to this part of Manhattan. It had recently popped up on my radar though, with the emergence of the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen", as they called him. I had a vague of who the masked crusader of Hell's Kitchen could be with the research and snooping I had been doing. I had yet to tell Steve or anyone on the team really, that I had been collecting a database of vigilantes throughout the country; you never knew when the Avengers may need some additional help. So, it should've surprised me when I found myself standing outside of the law firm of Nelson & Murdoch.

When I enter the office, a man wearing round dark glasses emerges from the office to the left. "Can I help you?" he asks, his hand lightly resting on the walking stick on front of him.

"Are you Matt Murdoch?" I ask. I wasn't sure what I was doing here; scratch that, I had no clue what I was doing here.

"I am," he says, nodding his head once. "Do you have an appointment?"

"I don't," I say, timidly. There wasn't anyone else in office, so I doubted that he even had an appointment lined up.

"Sorry, we're still a newer practice," he says, giving me a smile. "Still working out the kinks of scheduling. Why don't we step into my office?" I step through the door once he steps to the other side, waiting to shut the door behind me. I sit down in the chair in front of his desk as he moves to the other side. "What can I help you with Ms…"

"Mrs. Rogers," I say. "But everyone calls me Rhiannon."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Matt says. "However, I have a feeling you aren't here seeking legal advice?"

One of my eyebrows rises as Matt just looks towards me, a small smirk on his face. "Wow," I say, shaking my head. "You are very perceptive, Mr. Murdoch. I assume you know who I am then?"

"The name is familiar," he says. He reaches up and smooths down his tie. "You recently married Captain Rogers?"

"That I did," I say. A silence settles between us for a few seconds. "Does it make you nervous that I'm here?"

Another smirks pulls up the corner of his mouth. "You know what I do"

"I do," I admit. "But I am the only one. Unless Stark had JARVIS hack my personal laptop, which I would know if he did…which he hasn't."

"Are you just here to confirm your suspicions then?" Matt asks.

"Partly," I say with a shrug. I finally look away from him and down at my wedding set. "I was thrown into this world of superheroes and vigilantes; it wasn't something I ever expect to happen. I'm just a girl from Tennessee who is crazy good with computers that married Captain America." I had his attention. "My world is…crazy, to put it lightly. I know, without a shadow of doubt, that Steve would go to the ends of the Earth to protect me. But…I don't want to feel weak. I want to know that if for some reason it came down to it I could defend myself."

Matt lets out a quiet sigh. "You want me to teach you to fight?" One of his eyebrows quirks up. "And you couldn't ask one of people you work with?"

"You wouldn't go easy on me like they would," I tell him.

"I may since I'd essentially be beating on Captain America's wife." There was no humor is his voice and his face was blank. I couldn't read him. "When would you like to start?"


	4. Chapter 4

When I had gone to Matt Murdoch's office, I had not expected to walk out with a time set up to train with him every day. Maybe I had in the back of my mind; but I still wasn't expecting it. When I got back to the Tower, I had told Steve that I signed up for a yoga class. I _knew_ he would disapprove of me training with someone he didn't know, especially one that fought crime in Hell's Kitchen every night.

Matt was a…disciplined teacher, to put it nicely. To put it honestly, he kicked my ass every day. Surprisingly, I seemed to be a natural. After a couple of weeks though, Matt seemed to up the training, adding in long sticks to hand-to-hand combat. When I arrived at work at the Tower that day, just about every breath was making me wince. Matt had tried to get me to go to the emergency department, but I had foolishly refused.

So far I had done a good job of hiding my reaction to the little jabs of pain; until I got into the lab with Bruce to try out a new tracking system I had created. Without even thinking about it, I had taken a deep breath eliciting a loud wince of pain. "Are you okay?" Bruce asked, peering at me over his glasses.

I shake my head, waving a hand at him. "I'm fine." I tell him. "Just stretched a little too much in yoga this morning."

"You've been doing this for a couple of weeks now," he says, taking a couple of steps towards me.

"I have," I say. "But you know how it is…you don't exercise for a while-"

"You look like every breath is hurting you…" He was definitely onto me now.

"I'm fine Bruce," I say. "I swear. Just please, drop it."

"Does Steve at least know," he asks.

I shake my head again. "He doesn't. I am fine though, so please…just drop it."

"You know I am a doctor," he was standing right next to me now. "I am bound by law and oath to help anyone if they are in pain." I let out a sigh as I stop working. "Look, if you don't want to tell me what happened that's fine. At least let me look at you though."

I narrow my eyes slightly as I look at him. "Not a word to Steve?" Bruce nods his head before asking JARVIS to darken the walls of the lab for privacy. I lift my shirt on the side were it hurt most. The skin over my ribcage was already starting to bruise. I almost double over in pain when Bruce lightly pushes on the area over my ribs.

"You probably have a fractured rib or two," he says, still feeling the area. "Of course we'd need an x-ray to know for sure. I'm also guessing you didn't get this from yoga." I say nothing as I lower my shirt again. "You know you're not going to be able to hide that from him for six weeks."

Still, I say nothing. "Just pain relievers will help this, right?" Bruce nods his head and I cut him off as he starts to say something. "Alright, I think I have something in my desk upstairs. I'll be back down in a little while."

* * *

I enter the lab to find Bruce in there by himself. "Steve," he says in greeting.

I nod my head towards him. "You said you needed to talk to me about something?" I glance around the lab. Rhiannon had told me she would be in here most of the day working with him, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Bruce immediately looked uncomfortable. "It's about Rhiannon..." I cross my arms over my chest as he removes his glasses and rubs at his eyes. "This morning when she was in here, she acted like she was in pain. I was finally able to convince her to let me look over and she at least has three fractured ribs-"

" _What?"_

"I had told her I wouldn't tell you…but these injuries are very out of character for her," he says. I could feel my heart racing, _how did she get three fractured ribs?_ "I'm telling you out of concern for her as a friend."

I take a deep breath and release it slowly. "Thank you for telling me. I'll take care of it." Bruce gives me a tight smile before I turn and leave the lab. I had to get to the bottom of what was going on with Rhiannon. I also knew that I would have to approach this carefully. I send a text to her asking where she is. She responds quickly, telling me that she's in her office. As I step onto the elevator, I try to calm myself down while worrying what the hell my wife had been doing.

* * *

As soon as Steve stepped off the elevator and into my office, I could tell he was irked about something. "Hey," I say as he walks towards my desk. I sit down in my chair again. "You looked irritated…"

"I'm not irritated," he says. I raise an eyebrow at him as he comes around the desk and leans against it and crosses his arms over his chest. "But I am worried about you."

"Why would you be worried about me?" Even though I ask the question, I immediately know that Bruce must have said something to him. I should've known he would.

"Bruce talked to me." He simply says. I stand up from my chair to stand in front of Steve.

"I'm fine Steve," I tell him. Even though it hurt like hell, I cross my arms over my chest.

"So we're lying to each other now?" His lips press into a hard line as his arms fall down to his sides.

"I'm not lying to you. Despite whatever Bruce told you, I am fine." I say again.

"At least three fractured ribs…that's not fine. Especially when you're supposedly just doing yoga," Steve says. "Or was Bruce lying?" My arms drop down to my side in defeat; he wasn't going to let this go and as Bruce had said, I wasn't going to be able to hide this from him while it healed over the next few weeks. I turn my head away from him as I lift up my shirt to show him the bruising. Steve steps up in front of me, placing a hand on the hip opposite of the bruising. "What the hell have you been doing? And stop lying to me-"

"This is why I didn't say anything to you," I say, yanking my shirt back down and stepping away from him. "You're overreacting-"

"I am not overreacting," Steve says. "You've obviously been lying to me about what you've been doing every morning and now you have three fractured ribs."

"What do you think I'm doing Steve?" I say to him, my voice was growing firmer and louder. I don't know why I didn't just tell him; but I was in too deep now. "Just drop it-"

"You must think me a fool if you think I'm going to drop this-"

"Pardon the interruption, Mrs. Rogers," JARVIS says overhead.

"What JARVIS?" I snap back at the air. I was fuming.

"Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark are requesting you in the lab," the AI says. "They say it is urgent and regarding the scepter."

"Tell them I'll be right down," I say. I head towards the elevators with Steve right beside me. "I guess I need a babysitter now?" Steve just shakes his head as we step onto the elevator. The entire ride down there was uncomfortable. I knew I was in the wrong, that I should just tell him what I was doing. There was a stubborn streak running through me though that was keeping me from telling him. A few minutes later we both walk into the lab. "Did you guys get a hit?"

Bruce quickly glances between Steve and I. "Yeah," he says. I walk up and stand on the other side of the screen that seemed to float in the middle of the room. "It's a ninety percent match."

"We just need you to see if it's HYDRA that's got it," Tony pipes up from across the room. I start working as a silence settles over the lab. Tony, though, is sure to break that silence. "Troubles in the Rogers' household?"

"Stay out of it Tony," Steve says. I roll my eyes as I keep working.

"Steve is mad at me because he thinks I'm hiding something from him." Across the room, Steve gives me an annoyed look. "What? You want to live here where everyone can know our business anyways. Why not go ahead and tell them?"

"To be fair, you do have three fractured ribs," Bruce quips. I raise an eyebrow at him as he shrugs his shoulder.

Tony lets out a low whistle. "Badass. Who have you been fighting?"

"If I won't tell my husband, why do you think I'll tell you Tony?" I say.

"Well I won't be as judgey as your husband," Tony says.

I shake my head as a map of a remote HYDRA bunker pops up. "Looks like my story will have to wait for another time gentlemen. Y'all have a got a scepter to steal back."

"I'll give Thor a call," Steve says. Behind him I hear Tony contacting Clint and Natasha. "He's in London visiting with Jane."

After moving and sending everything to the quinjet in the Tower, I shut down the tracking program. "I'll run up and make sure all this info got to the jet." About twenty minutes later, the team comes walking out of the elevator, Steve in his suit, ready to go. I meet him halfway as Tony, Bruce, Clint, and Natasha walk past me. "How long do you guys think you'll be gone?"

"Couple days at most," Steve says. He lets out a sigh as he slips his wedding ring off his finger. Grabbing the long chain out of his pocket, he slides it on the chain before placing the chain around my neck. His hands rest on my shoulders, his thumbs drawing long strokes on my neck. "You know we'll have to talk when I get back."

I nod my head. "I know." My hands wrap around his wrists as his lips find mine. Too soon, Steve pulls away and tells me he loves me. "I love you too Steve." He gives me one more quick peck on the lips before walking away from me and onto the quinjet.


	5. Chapter 5

" _You've been doing what?"_ Just like I knew he would be, Steve was angry about the lessons I had been taking with Matt in the mornings. It probably didn't help though that when I told him, I told him in front of the entire team.

"Why the hell do you want to know how to fight?" Tony asks. He seemed amused by the notion.

Steve was fuming. "Who's been teaching you?"

I shrug a shoulder as I look down at my nails. "Some guy in Hell's Kitchen."

"It's not that crazy guy that's running around at night in a mask is it?" Clint asks from the Cradle. He meant it as a joke but when I don't say anything, the room grows even tenser. Clint mumbles his reaction. "Holy shit…"

"So not only have you been lying about what you've been doing," Steve says, his hands clenching and unclenching. I had never seen him this mad. "But you've been taking lesson from someone who is clearly unqualified to teach you!"

"If you wanted to learn to fight so badly, why didn't you just ask one of us?" Natasha asks.

"Because you guys would've gone easy on me," I say. "We all know it's true because the second any sort of lesson would start, you would be breathing down my neck to make sure they weren't too tough on me." I finish the statement looking at Steve. He doesn't say anything, just continues to stare at me.

"She's got a point," Tony says. Everyone turns to look at him, except Steve who was glaring at him. Tony rolls his eyes. "Oh come on Cap, how many times have you come up to me and said that I was working her too hard. You're super over-protective of her."

"You've _what_?" My head spins to look at Steve again.

"We aren't talking about that right now," Steve says, on the defensive now. "We're talking about you getting lessons from someone who is known to be-"

"No, we aren't talking about anything because I am done with this conversation." I yell at him. I stand up from the stool I had been sitting on and turn to face everyone but Steve. "You all couldn't give two craps about me learning how to fight, you're just pissed I didn't ask one of you. And you," I turn back to face Steve. "I know that you are over-protective, _god_ do I know, but I am a grown-ass woman and if I want to know how to defend myself, I have every right to know how." No one says anything as I storm towards the door. Before I leave though, I throw one last statement at them. "Oh and by the way, I am _awesome_ at this fighting thing."

* * *

We all watch as Rhiannon storms out of the room and heads straight for the elevators. After a moment of silence, Thor was the first to speak up. "The lady has a point. If she wishes to defend herself, she should know how."

"That's not the point though," I say. My feelings were all conflicted. I was mad, so mad, that she had hid this from me; I was hurt that she felt she couldn't tell me about this; I was concerned that she was putting herself in harm's way just because of the environment we lived in.

"How did she even find- what are they calling him?- the 'Devil of Hell's Kitchen', that's a comforting name," Tony says.

"How does she ever find anyone?" Natasha says. She was right; Rhiannon was a master at tracking people.

"And you know, I am a little offended she didn't ask me to teach her how to fight," Clint pipes up. The pain medicine Dr. Cho had given him must have been catching up with him.

I let out a sigh as my hands come to rest on my hips. "I better go talk to her." No one says anything as I walk out of the room.

* * *

Through the open door of the bedroom, I hear the front door of the apartment open. I had left the Tower after the group discussion about my fighting lessons. I felt drained and my side was hurting me very badly. A few minutes later, I lift my head slightly to see Steve walking into the bed room. He pauses by the closet and kicks his shoes off before climbing in the bed behind me. Gently, he wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me back towards him. It hurts my side a little, but the pain subsides almost instantaneously. "Are you mad at me?" Steve asks quietly, his breath warming the back of my neck.

"Are you mad at me?" I ask instead of answering.

"I am," he says. "But I'm also worried about you."

"I know," I say quietly. "I knew you would be worried though, that's why I didn't tell you."

Steve doesn't say anything right away. The comfort of having his arms around me was making me feel sleepy. "You know that I'll always protect you."

I nod my head. "But what happens if you're not around?" Yet again, Steve doesn't say anything right away. "I just want to know how to defend myself Steve."

I feel Steve kiss the back of my head. We lay there in silence for a while and I eventually drift off to sleep. I end up sleeping for a couple hours until Steve wakes me up and tells me that dinner is ready. We eat in silence, but the tension between us is all but gone. "Tony text me," he says once we are done eating. "He's having a party tomorrow to celebrate finding the scepter."

"Does Tony ever need an excuse to have a party?" My comment earns a chuckle from Steve. "But sounds fun anyway."

Steve nods his head as he wipes his mouth off with a napkin. "I was also thinking I'd move the rest of my stuff out of the Tower and over here." I choke a little on the water I had been taking a drink of. "And then tomorrow we could maybe start looking for a place in Brooklyn."

I stare at him for a moment before nodding my head. "Yeah- uh, sure. That sounds awesome." Steve gives me a smile before picking up both of our plates and heading towards the dishwasher with them.

A couple of minutes later, he returns with a fresh glass of water and couple of pain pills for me. "Here, Bruce gave me these to give to you to help control your pain." I thank him as he passes the pills to me. I wasn't sure why, but I suddenly felt on edge. Steve seemed more attentive to me than usual. "I'm going to head back to the Tower and get the last of my stuff. If you want, we'll watch a movie when I get back." I nod my head, giving him a wary look that he picks up on. "Look," he says with a sigh. I watch him as he walks back over to me and squats down in front of me, taking my hands into his. "I did some thinking and you were right earlier. But, you are my wife and I want to take care of you. Now that the scepter has been found…I'll be around more. You've still got me Rhiannon." I smile at him as I lean down and press my lips to his.


	6. Chapter 6

"This was aged for a thousand years," Thor says, holding up a flask that looked like it came from Asgard. "In the barrels built from the wreck of Brunhilde's fleet, it's not meant for mortal men." I raise an eyebrow as he pours a little into two glasses; one for him and one for Steve.

"Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie." An older gentleman says. I laugh a little as the old man wearing a 'World War 2 Vet' hat holds out a hand and beckons for a little of the drink. "Stop trying to scare us. Come on."

Thor shrugs a shoulder as he grabs a nearby glass and pours a little into it for the man. "Alright." We all watch as the man swallows it in one gulp, trying to keep from making a face.

"Here," I say, holding my hand out towards Steve's glass. "Let me see it."

"Oh no," Steve says with a shake of his head. "You are not drinking this. You get-"

"I'm not going to drink it," I say with a roll of my eyes. Steve cautiously hands me his glass. As I lift it up to my nose, I take a small whiff of it. It smelt _strong_ and now my interest was piqued. "Not all of it anyways." I murmur into the glass. Before Steve or Thor could stop me, I take the tiniest of sips of the drink. Immediately I start coughing and hacking, handing the drink back to Steve.

Thor laughs loudly as he pats my back twice. "I warned you Lady Rogers," he says as I'm finally able to stand up straight.

"Yeah," I say, my throat still feeling like it was literally on fire. I look at Steve who was trying his hardest not to laugh. "I'll take your warnings more serious from here on out." Steve downs the drink, only wincing slightly from the burn. "I'm going to get Natasha to mix me a drink for mortal men." I wind my way through Tony's celebratory party, saying hello to familiar faces as I pass them. Most of the people I didn't know, but there were a few I did. I was sure most of the people didn't even know what the team was celebrating; but when Tony Stark threw a party, you showed up. "Hey Natasha," I say once I reach the bar. She looks up from the drink she was making and raises an eyebrow at me. "Make me something that does not taste like alcohol at all?"

Her lips purse in amusement as she nods her head. "Did you try some of Thor's special Asgardian drink?" I nod my head. "You've had an adventurous streak in you lately."

"Yeah…well," I say with a shrug. "I think that streak has ended. Guess I'll just be the prissy one of the group-"

"What's wrong with that?" Natasha asks, handing me the pink drink. "Everyone has their niche. Yours just happens to be the preppy tech girl; nothing wrong with that."

I shake my head as I take a sip of the drink, grateful it tasted nothing like alcohol. "You have such a way with words Romanov."

* * *

I laugh along with the rest of the group as Clint fails to lift Mjolnir. "I still don't know how you do it." Clint says with a chuckle as he backs away from the hammer and shakes his head at it.

"Smell the silent judgment?" Tony says with a raise of him eyebrow, mocking Clint.

"Please, Stark," Clint gestures down towards the hammer. "By all means."

"Oh, here we go." Natasha taunts as Tony stands up, unbuttoning his jacket with a flourish.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge." Tony says. I roll my eyes as he circles around the table where the hammer was sitting. The party had died away, leaving just the team plus James Rhodes, Maria Hill, Dr. Cho, and me sitting in a lounge area. Steve's jacket was draped over my shoulders to guard from the breeze coming in from the open windows. Everyone was taunting Tony as well. "It's physics." Tony finally stands in front of the hammer and wraps the strap around his wrist as he grasps the handle. "Right, so, if I lift it, I...I then rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course." Thor says, trying to hide his own laughter.

"Lord help those people," I add to the rabble.

"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." Tony says. We all watch as he lifts on the hammer a couple times. He stares at the hammer for a second before releasing the handle. "I'll be right back." He disappears behind a doorway for a second, coming back wearing one of his Iron Man hands. He tries again to lift on the hammer, but fails.

After some goading, Tony convinces Rhodey to get his War Machine hand. "Are you even pulling?" James says with a grunt as both he and Tony try to lift the hammer.

"Are you on my team?" Tony fires back.

Rhodey grunts as they continue to lift on the hammer. "Just represent! Pull!"

"Alright, let's go!" Tony says with a grunt. The repulsors in their hands activate as they give one last effort in lifting the hammer. They finally admit defeat and take off the hands.

Bruce stands up to try his hand. He pulls on the hammer and fails to lift it. As he steps away from it, the acts as if he's going to turn into the Hulk. No one catches onto the joke though. "Huh?" he says, looking around at everyone.

Steve stands up to try his hand. "You know if you rule Asgard," I say as Steve walks up to the hammer. "We could move there instead of Brooklyn..."

Steve just shakes his head and gives me a crooked smile. "Come on, Cap." One member of the group says as Steve grips on the handle and pulls up. I smile to myself as I take a drink of my beer, watching the Steve's muscles bulge as he lifts up on the hammer. I start to choke on the beer, however, when the hammer slightly lifts off the table.

"Nothing!" Thor says before I can say anything. I'm sure my eyes are bugging out of my head as Steve come sit back down next to me.

He raises an eyebrow at me in question as one of his hands come to res ton my knee. "The hammer," I whisper at him. "It lifted a little bit!"

"I think you've had a little too much to drink," Steve says, pressing a kiss to my temple.

"Oh, no no." I hear Natasha say. Looking over at her, I see her leaning back on the couch she was sitting on. "That's not a question I need answered."

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king," Tony says, sweeping his hands towards Thor. "But it's rigged."

"You bet your ass." Clint says as he stands up.

"Steve," I pipe up, pointing at Clint who was walking to the bar. "He said a bad language word."

Steve, slightly annoyed now, looks up at Tony. "Did you tell everyone about that?"

Tony ignores Steve's question. "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?"

Thor nods his head. "Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." The Asgardian stands up and goes to stand in front of the hammer, picks it up with a flip and catches it. "You're all not worthy."

Everyone chimes in to disagree with him for a second before a high pitched noise rings through the room. My hands instinctively cover my ears for a second until it stops. The group all looks around, trying to find the source of the sound. Loud footsteps start making their way toward us, a mechanical whirring accompanying it.

"Worthy?" a mechanical voice drones out. All of our heads turn towards the source to see a ragged legionnaire, or what used to be one, standing in front of a doorway, leading towards the labs of the Tower. "No…how could you be worthy…you're all killers."

"Stark," Steve says. As I stand up, Tony was pulling out his phone, trying to get JARVIS to respond. I pull out my own phone, trying to get the AI to respond but get nothing.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or...I was a-dream?" The mechanical man says, hobbling around in spot. Tony was still trying to get JARVIS to respond. I start to sidestep over towards the bar; I knew there was a tablet behind it. "There was a terrible noise...and I was tangled in... in...strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" I hear Steve say as I make it to the bar. Sure enough, there was a tablet. I grab and set to work on trying to get JARVIS to respond.

"Wouldn't have been my first call." The bot says, still wobbling around. "But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor asks it.

The bot turns, seeming to look at the group as it presses two of its fingers together. "'I see a suit of armor around the world.'" The voice that comes from it is Tony.

"Ultron!" Bruce says, looking over at Tony. My head snaps up. I had heard them mention the name before.

"In the flesh." Ultron says, looking down at its body. "Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" Natasha asks as everyone starts to slightly move, as if preparing for a fight.

"Peace in our time." Ultron says. A second later, more legionnaires burst through the wall behind Ultron heading straight for the group.

I duck down behind the bar, abandoning the tablet. Above me, everyone was fighting with the bots. A second later, Natasha and Bruce both come over the bar, landing next to me. "Don't turn green." Natasha tells him. He says he won't as they both turn and look at me for a second before Natasha grabs a pistol that was attached to the bottom of the bar. She fires it a couple of times before her and Bruce stand up to join the fight. Natasha tells me to stay where I am as they run out from behind the bar. _Like hell I am,_ I think to myself. I look around to try to find something to defend myself with. Underneath the bar, I spot a mop. _That'll work,_ I think as I grab it and quickly detach the head. When I stand up, it's like one of the bots zone in on me. I run out from behind the bar and swing the long handle at it, fighting like Matt had taught me. Vaguely, I notice that the other bots were firing at everyone else but the one I was fighting seemed to be trying to grab me, not kill me. My suspicions were confirmed when the thing gets its arms around me and tries to fly away. Instinctively, I start to scream for Steve as the bot starts to zoom towards a window. A second later, I hear the unmistakable zing of the shield flying through the air before it hits the bot, cutting it in half. I start to fall towards the ground, but thankfully Thor was nearby and catches me. I look around as he sits me on my feet; all of the bots were dead, except Ultron.

"Well that was dramatic," Ultron says, pacing around in the same area. "I'm sorry…I know you mean well…you just didn't think it through." Out of the corner of my eye, I see Steve stepping over towards me. I reach out for him and grab onto his shirt, pulling myself close to him. One of his arms wrap around me. "You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" I cower into Steve as Ultron steps forward and bends down to pick up one of the dead Legionnaires. "These…these puppets…there's only one path to peace…" He drops the bot as he stares straight at Thor. "The Avenger's extinction." Without waiting another second, Thor throws his hammer, crushing Ultron into pieces. In the new silence, we all stand around and look at each other.

I may have passed out for a minute.


	7. Chapter 7

Ultron was bad…very, very, _very_ bad. We were all back in the lab, sans Thor who had flown after the Legionnaire that had made off with the scepter. After a quick look over from Dr. Cho (my healing fractured ribs were now fractured once again thanks to the bot that had grabbed me), I had managed to escape unscathed except for the ribs and the few cuts on my arms from broken glass. My eyes, trained on one of the screens, standing next to Bruce, I let out a loud sigh. "All of your work is gone." I say. "Ultron took it all; used the internet as an escape hatch. He's been in everything: files, surveillance…"

"He probably knows more about us than we know about each other," Natasha says from across the room.

"In your files…surveillance?" Rhodey says. I glance up and see him walking across the lab, almost glaring at Tony as he presses a large pad of gauze to a wound on his arm. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes." Hill says almost immediately.

"Nuclear codes," Rhodey confirms. "We need to make some calls…assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Romanov says, turning away from her computer. "He said he wanted us dead-"

"He didn't say 'dead'," Steve adds. "He said 'extinct'."

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint says.

"There wasn't anybody else in the building," Hill says.

Tony walks up behind me and Bruce, standing in the middle of the lab. "Yes there was." We both turn around to see him flick his phone in the air, causing a large orange pixelated mass to appear in the air before him. It takes me a second, but then I finally recognize it.

I walk up to it with Bruce, both of us staring at it in shock: the mass was the dismantled remains of JARVIS. "What?" Bruce half whispers.

"This is insane," I say, slowly pacing around the hologram.

"JARVIS was the first line of defense," Steve says. I stop pacing and look over at him, seeing his head hung and his arms crossed over his chest. "It makes sense. He would've shut Ultron down."

"No, Ultron could've assimilated JARVIS," Bruce says. His hands were hovering around the top of the dismantled orb, as if he could've pushed the pieces of the AI back together.

"This isn't strategy," I say. "This is…"

"Rage," Bruce finishes my thought.

Heavy footsteps sound next to us as Thor suddenly flies in. Without a single word, he stomps across the lab and through the hologram making it disappear, grabs Tony by the neck and lifts him into the air in one single swoop.

"Come on buddy," Tony says, his voice garbled by Thor's hand around his neck. "Use your words."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." There was a quiet rage in Thor's voice that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Thor," Steve says in his 'Captain' voice. I feel his presence as he comes to stand next to me. Thor drops Tony. "The Legionnaire?"

"The trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north," he glances at Steve before returning to glare at Tony. "And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle." Natasha says, capturing Thor's attention. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand," Dr. Cho says across the room. I look over at her as she turns away from looking at one of the dismantled Legionnaires. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

The last noise I expected to hear from Tony escapes his lips: he starts chuckling. Everyone turns to glare at him except Bruce, standing next to him, that was shaking his head at Tony and wisely telling him to stop.

"You think this is funny?" Thor says, taking a couple of steps towards Tony.

"No?" Tony asks, turning around to face us all. He was trying to hide the ironic smile on his face, but fails "It's probably not…right?" I shake my head as I cross my arms over my chest. "This is very terrible. It is so…" He chuckles again. "It is…it is so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor says, stepping towards Tony again.

"No." Tony says, alos stepping towards Thor and coming to a stop in front of him "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony," Bruce says just loud enough. "Maybe this might not be the time."

"Really?" Tony turns back towards Bruce. "That's it? You just roll over and show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

Bruce stares at Tony with wide eyes. "Only when I've created a murder bot."

"We didn't!" Tony says, holding his arms out wide. "We weren't even close- Were we close to an interface?" Bruce shrugs his shoulders as he nods his head.

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." I chime in. Tony turns to look at me and then looks at Steve.

"The Avengers were supposed to be different from S.H.I.E.L.D." Steve says.

"Does anyone remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asks.

"No," Rhodey says. It shouldn't have shocked me he'd stick up for Tony. "It's never come up-"

"Saved New York?" Tony asks again. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that's…that's the endgame. How were you guys-"

"How can you defend this?" I had had enough. I was trying my hardest to keep my mouth shut, but was unsuccessful. I hadn't meant to shout the question…but it did its job by shutting Tony up and grabbing everyone's attention. "Seriously," I take a couple steps towards him, uncrossing my arms from my chest and shaking Steve's hand off my shoulder. "How can you…how is this any different than what S.H.I.E.L.D. did in D.C.? A world security system that… _shocker_ …has turn evil and is now hell-bent on destroying the world. I've been on this side of it Tony… _I've created this damn system before_!" Tony stares at me…stone faced. "Are you really ready to have the blood of billions of lives on your hands? You realize that you've put this on _all_ of us? How could-"

I stop when I feel Steve's hands wrap around my shoulders. My throat felt thick and I knew I was trying to cry, but I refused to. "Thor's right," Steve says overtop my head. "Ultron's calling us out and I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place; let's start making it smaller." Everyone starts moving around the lab, set on tracking down Ultron.

"I'm fine," I say as I turn around to face Steve. I actually wasn't; but now wasn't the time to deal with it. "I'll be fine." Steve looks down at me, not believing me, but he nods his head. I pat his chest a couple of times before stepping out from under his gaze. Starting to head towards Clint, I stop by Thor first. "Thank you, for catching me earlier."

Thor looks down at me, some of the rage disappearing from his eyes. "You're welcome Lady Rogers." He nods his head once before I keep walking.

"Hey," I say, coming to a stop next to Clint. He looks at me, the question obvious in his eyes. I speak to him in whisper. "There's no way Ultron found it. They should be safe." Clint nods his head. "I'll try to get a secure line set up so you can call them. It might take me until the morning though."

"Thanks kid." He says. "By the way," he says, speaking in a normal tone now. "That was some pretty slick fighting earlier. I was impressed."

I roll my eyes. "Thanks." I clap him on the shoulder before walking away from him and over to Bruce.

I try my best not to stare daggers at him, but apparently fail. "I'm sorry Rhiannon," he says once I come to a stop at the computer next to him. "I didn't think how-"

"Let's not talk about this right now," I say. "But I do have to ask you something," Bruce looks at me, pushing his glasses up his nose. Flashbacks run through my mind of the bot grabbing me and trying to fly away. "Why the hell would Ultron want me?"


	8. Chapter 8

" _You were what?"_ I ask through gritted teeth. It had taken me all night, but I finally got a straight answer from Tony and Bruce as to why one of the Legionnaires was trying to take me. Apparently, Tony and Bruce were going to ask me to write the security codes for Ultron. "What…why…why?"

"You are the best at it," Bruce says, shrugging his shoulder. "We didn't expect-"

"To create a murder-bot?" I stop my work to turn to look at him. "You get that you were essentially asking me to do the same exact thing that I did in D.C.?"

Bruce looked very uncomfortable. "I told Tony that-"

"Now this murder-bot wants me?" I say. "Because it knows what I can do. That is just…that's great. Thanks for that Bruce." Bruce tries to apologize again but I cut him off. "I'm going to head up to my office…make sure that Ultron didn't get into my stuff." Bruce apologizes again as I walk away. Every bone and muscle in my body ached. I mainly wanted to escape to my office to try and catch an hour or two of shut eye. After going through my laptop…which was still safe…I lay down on the couch and tried to shut out the world; tried to shut out everything that was happening. Tried to shut out the fact that, yet again, the safety of the world was resting on my family's shoulders. I start imagining a different life. I start imagining Steve and I finding an apartment in Brooklyn. Steve, escaping to the fire escape to sketch the skyline every evening. I may have started a small herb garden on the kitchen window. Natasha and Clint would come over, complaining about needing to escape Tony. As I drifted off to sleep, I created a whole life for me and Steve. The life was short lived though, when Steve woke me a couple hours later.

"Hey," he says quietly. I could feel him pushing hair off my forehead, running his fingers through to the ends of my hair. "Hey, Rhi…we need your help with something."

I scrunch my nose as I roll over on my side towards Steve. When I open my eyes, I see him kneeling on the floor so that he's lined up with my head, his arm lying on the couch with his chin propped on it. "I think we should just say screw Ultron, let Tony deal with it, and escape back to Corsica."

Steve smiles at me sadly before leaning forward and kissing me sweetly. "I'd love nothing more," he says quietly. "But-"

"We can't…I know." I shut my eyes as I sit up with a groan. Anything that hurt before was amplified by ten now. "Holy crap I'm sore." I say as Steve extends a hand to help me stand. When we're both standing, I notice Steve's changed into the bottom half of his uniform. "Next time murder bots come after me…remind me not to try to fight one."

"Alright," Steve shakes his head in amusement as we head towards the elevator. I grab my laptop first before we head back down to the lab. My laptop probably had the only secure line to the internet in the whole building; using it would be our best bet.

"Ah, she lives," Tony says as we pass through the lab. Everyone was in the conference room area, looking at hard copies of files.

"She lives and she has secure internet," I respond, holding up my laptop for a second. "Ultron wasn't able to break down my fire walls so this is our best bet to stay a step ahead of him."

"I knew there was a reason I hired you," Tony says. I sarcastically smirk at him as I set up my laptop on the table in-between a couple of the half-empty boxes. "Time to earn your paycheck. See what you can find on this love bite."

Tony hands me a file, folded open to a picture of a guy who looks not-so-good, pointing at a brand on the guy's neck. I nod my head as I grab my phone out of my pocket. I use it to scan the brand and upload it to my laptop. After plugging the photo into one of my tracking systems, it takes a few seconds before it recognizes the symbol. While it's going, the team updates me on what I miss. "Well, then the symbol makes sense," I say, getting a hit. "It means 'thief' in an African dialect…in a not so nice way."

"What dialect?" Steve asks from across the table.

A second later, his answer appears on my screen. My eyes involuntarily bug when I see the word. I knew what it meant. I look over at Tony and then at Steve. "Wakanda."

Tony and Steve both immediately look at each other. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…"

"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve says to Tony.

"I don't follow," Bruce says. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

Steve turns to look back at his shield, propped against the wall behind him, as Tony answers. "The strongest metal on Earth."

"Wakanda was the only place on Earth you could find Vibranium," I explain further as I set to work to track down the guy from the photo. "Back in the forties when Howard made my man's shield he thought- _what the hell?"_ Suddenly, the screen on my laptop was fritzing out, static filling the screen. Everyone gathers around me as I frantically try to figure out what was going on. I pull my hands away when the screen goes black. "What is going on-" This time, when my screen changes, I let out a full on shriek and start to back away from the laptop. I'm stopped by Steve right behind me though. Pictures of me, hundreds upon hundreds of them, were literally flooding my screen; they ranged from when I was a child until what looked to be just last night at the party. After a few seconds, they finally stop, resting on a photo of me that looked like it was taking by the legionnaire I had been fighting the night before. Ominous, pixelated red words start to type across the screen: _You can't hide in that Tower forever._ I stare at the screen, rereading the words over and over, until it goes black again and then flashes to what I had been doing right before it fritzed out. "Was that-"

"Ultron," Bruce answers before I finish asking. Steve's hands tighten around my shoulders protectively. "He must have hacked his way into your system."

"Why would he blatantly call her out," Natasha asks from…somewhere behind me.

My blood was pounding in my ears and my heart felt like it was in my throat. My head turns as I look right at Tony. The billionaire was looking at me with a guilty look on his face. Before anyone answers Natasha, I grab my laptop and throw it onto the ground, stomping on it repeatedly. Once it's smashed into pieces, I turn on Tony. "Tell them." I say through gritted teeth. He starts to answer, but I cut him off. "Tell them what my part in this whole Ultron plan was Tony," I start to walk towards him, making him start to walk backwards.

"I see Banner told you that-"

"Yeah, he told me Tony," I grab one of the lids to the cardboard boxes and chuck it at Tony. "Why in the world would-"

"He didn't tell you everything though," Tony says, holding up his hands. I stop my advance on him to ask him what he means. "Once we had the interface up and running, I was going-" I could already feel my adrenaline start to rise. I knew I wasn't going to like what he was going to say next. "Control of Ultron would have been switched over to you-"

I would've full on tackled Tony Stark in that moment, but my husband had crazy quick reflexes and grabbed me, holding me back from killing his teammate. Everyone was talking at Tony, asking what he was thinking, why he thought that was a good idea; while I was throwing death threats at him. "Why would you do this Stark?" I hear Steve ask over everyone else.

"Because she is the best out of all of us," Tony answers. I actually stop trying to break Steve's hold on me. Someone asks him what he means. "Just think about it. If Ultron would've turn out like he was supposed to, who would you want to be in charge of it? The World Security Council? US Government? The UN? Me? Banner? Romanov? No." Tony shakes his head as he looks square at me. "You wrote those codes for Insight. They were so strong…HYDRA couldn't even override them and they knew that."

"And millions of people almost died because of Insight, Tony," I say. Steve finally let go of me, satisfied I wasn't going to kill the man in front of me. "I was _tortured_ because of Insight. Why in the world would that make me a candidate to be in charge of Ultron?"

Tony shakes his head a couple of times before stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Cap, what was it that Erkstine told you when you ask him why he chose you?"

"This is different Tony," Steve says.

"You've made me a target," I say. I turn away from Tony, not able to look at him. "I got to…I can't stay here." I walk back over to the table and grab my cell phone. As I pull the back off and the sim card out to smash it, I look up at Hill. "Can you check my properties to see-"

"Security footage is showing Legionnaires at all of them," she answers before I even ask. "Those are out of commission."

I nod my head as I bend down to pick up the broken pieces of my laptop. As I do, an idea hits me. "I know where I can go," I say as I stand up. "A couple of calls will need to be made first, though."

Steve walks up to the table next to me. "Where-"

"It's a safe house," I cut him off. "I've never been there, but I know for a fact that Ultron knows nothing about it."

"I think I know the one you're talking about," Clint says. I look over at him as he nods his head once at me. "Old S.H.I.E.L.D. hide out?"

"Yeah," I say, nodding my head. "You all work on locating Klaue; I had him somewhere in Africa."

"I'll call about that safe house," Barton says before walking out of the room.

I grab Steve's hand and give it a tug. "I need to talk to you…in private." Steve nods his head as he follows me out of the room. We walk through the lab and into the lounge area, where the night before Ultron had attacked. Before I can even say anything, Steve grabs me by the waist, pulling up to his height, and smashes his lips to mine. A minute later he pulls away, leaving me breathless, as he sits me back down on my feet. "Steve, I-"

"Shhh," he says, pressing his forehead to mine. His eyes squeeze shut before I can notice the wetness in them. "Don't say anything; not yet." I let my arms travel up and circle around his neck. After an immeasurable amount of time, Steve finally speaks. "If we didn't need him so bad, I probably would've let you kill Stark."

Despite the heavy atmosphere, a small smile pulls at my lips. "I probably would have too." As I bring one of my hands to rest on Steve's cheek, he finally opens his eyes. I look up at him, our eyes locking on one another's. "I don't want to go," I say in a whisper.

"Corsica is sounding better and better," Steve says. His arms circle around me tighter as he pulls me flush against him.

There were so many words unspoken between us. We both knew what we wanted to say, but just couldn't bring ourselves to say them. "When this is over," I say, wiping away one of the tears that had escaped from my eye. "I found a place in Brooklyn. It's almost too perfect."

"Yeah?" Steve says. He knew I was just trying to distract him, but god love him, he played along anyway.

I nod my head. "It has two bedrooms, overlooks the river…it's perfect."

"We'll get it then," Steve says. "If you say it's perfect, then it's perfect."

I just nod my head against as I lay my head on Steve's chest. "I love you Steve…"

I feel him kiss the top of my head. "I love you too Rhiannon."

We stand there for a few more minutes, just holding each other, until a throat clearing near us breaks us out of our bubble. Both turning, we see Clint walking up to us. "Safe house is good to go," he tells me. "You remember the address?"

"I do," I tell him. "Thank you so much Clint. I don't know how-"

Clint waves a hand in the air. "Don't worry about it kid. If I were you, I'd hit the road now."

I nod my head and thank him again as he walks away. Looking up at Steve as he takes a step back, I watch him as he slips his wedding band off and puts it on the chain. This had become our routine; every time before he left on a mission, he'd give me his wedding band for safe keeping. A few more tears fall from my eyes as he slips the chain over my head. "I better get going," I say, slipping the band inside my shirt. "I'll rent a car to get me out of town."

Steve nods his head as he clears his throat. "I'll get in contact with you once we handle Klaue," he says.

"Clint will know how," I say. Before either of us can say anything else, I grab the back of Steve's neck and pull his lips down to mine. All too soon though, I break the kiss and make a beeline for the elevator, keeping my back to Steve as the elevator doors shut so he couldn't see the tears streaming down my face.


	9. Chapter 9

As I shut the car off, I peer out the windshield at the house in front of me. It was nighttime, but I was able to make out the blue shutters, light yellow paint of the clapboards, and the American flag blowing in the light nighttime breeze. I shake my head slightly as I get out of the car; it was nothing like I pictured. I had known that Clint had this place, where his family resided, but my mind was never able to conjure up an image of what it may have looked like. I walk up the little dirt path, my hands fiddling with the keys to the car. There was no time or chance for me to pack a bag, so I was arriving at the Barton farmstead empty handed. A single light, in the living room I supposed, was on in the whole house. As quietly as I could, I open the storm door to knock on the front door. A minute later, a figure approaches and opens the front door, leaving the storm door shut. "Are you Laura?" I ask the pregnant (which Clint hadn't mentioned) woman on the other side of the door.

She nods her head as she reaches to open the storm door. "You're Rhiannon," she says. "You're a little later than Clint thought you'd be…"

"I'm sorry," I say as I step into the front foyer. "I didn't want to risk using a GPS, so I had to revert back to my childhood to remember how to use a map. I got lost a couple of times…"

"It's alright," Laura says, giving me a smile. "The kids are already in bed, but if you'd like something to eat I could-"

"I'm fine, thank you though," I say. "I haven't really had much of an appetite since all this…"

"I can believe it," Laura says. She starts to lead me upstairs, telling me she had some clothes I could borrow and that I was welcome to use the shower. "I can't guarantee how long the hot water will last though." We both chuckle quietly as we come to a bedroom at the end of the hall. "You can have this room. The kids are at the other end of the hall, so they shouldn't wake you in the morning."

"That's alright. I'm an early riser." I tell her. "Thank you for letting me stay here. I hate to be an imposition, so-"

"It's not an imposition at all," Laura says, cutting me off. "Clint has told me numerous times how intel you've gathered has helped him or how you've done extra work just to help him out. It seems we owe you."

I smile back at her. "Well, don't be afraid to put me to work." I tell her. "I've never been without any technology, so…"

"Don't worry," Laura says, resting her hand on the top of my arm and giving it a squeeze. "This may be the vacation you didn't even realize you needed."

* * *

"I feel like I should warn you," Laura says as I pour myself a cup of coffee. I look over at her inquisitively. "Cooper and Lila can ask a lot of questions. I've told them to behave but…"

"It's alright," I say with a smile.

"You say that now," Laura says, raising an eyebrow at me. As I sit down at the table in the kitchen, sipping at my coffee, I hear the footsteps of the kids running down the stairs. A second later, they come barreling into the kitchen. "Kids, we have a guest." They both stop and turn towards me, peering at me like a stranger. "This is Captain Roger's wife, Rhiannon."

"Hello Mrs. Rogers," they say in unison.

"Good morning," I say to them. "You can call me Rhiannon if you like. I don't think anyone has actually called me Mrs. Rogers since we got married."

"So you're married to Captain America," Cooper asks. "Is that how you know dad?"

I glance up at Laura who gives me an _I told you so_ look before sitting the plates with breakfast food on the table. Cooper and Lila both climb into a seat near me. "I've actually worked with him longer than I've known Steve."

"So you worked at S.H.I.E.L.D.?" I wasn't sure how much the kids knew about Clint's work. Apparently they knew more than I thought.

"I did," I tell Cooper. "I started working there when I was pretty young." I spend the rest of breakfast answering question from Cooper and Lila, and even a couple from Laura.

When we're finished eating, Lila hops out of her chair and runs up to mine. "Do you want to color with me? I'm going to color Aunty Nat a picture. You can color one for Captain Rogers."

I smile down at her. "I would love to color with you. I'm going to help your mom clean up breakfast first." Lila gives a little cheer before running from the room, yelling as she goes that she'll be in the back room. As Laura and I start to clear off the table, Cooper says he's going to go to the back room to read. "Hey Laura," I say once Cooper is gone. "Have you heard from them at all?"

She shakes her head in answer. "Clint doesn't usually call when he's out on missions." She says. "I usually don't hear anything until he walks in the door."

"How nerve racking," I say.

"I know," Laura agrees. "But having the kids around helps distract. I'll finish cleaning this up. Go, let the kids distract you."

I thank her as I pour myself another cup of coffee and wind my way through the house until I find the backroom. "Here Rhiannon," Lila says as I enter the room. She pats a pillow beside her at the low table. "I got a spot all set up for you!"

Laura was right; the kids were a great distraction. I spent the next couple of hours coloring with Lila and answering questions from Cooper. About mid-morning, we hear Clint's voice, calling out for Laura. "Come on, let's get this picked up and we'll go see your dad." The kids quickly clean up what little mess there was before running out of the room as fast as they could. I pick up my now empty coffee cup and walk out of the room. My heart was racing: _why was Clint here, was the rest of the team here, was Steve here?_ As I walk into the foyer, I stop by the foot of the stairs when I see Steve standing in the doorway. He also freezes when he sees me. I set the coffee mug down on one of the stairs, because I knew what was coming next. In one swift motion, Steve crosses the foyer and scoops me into his arms, holding me tightly to him. There was something different about the way he was holding me, as if he thought I was going to disappear before him. I bury my face in his neck and his fingers dig into my back. When he sits me back on my feet, both of his hands grip the side of my head.

"You're safe, you're okay," he whispers before pressing his lips to my forehead.

There was something off about his voice. "Of course I'm okay," I say, my eyebrows knitting together. "Why would-"

Steve shakes his head. "I'll explain later," he says in a low voice. "I'm just glad you're okay."

I reach a hand up and cup the side of Steve's face, my thumb gliding over the pronounced bag under his eye. He looked as if he hadn't slept in a week. A second later, Laura comes into the foyer. "Captain Rogers," she says hesitantly, not wanting to interrupt us. "I'll put you up in Rhiannon's room. She can show you were the shower is and such. Clint said he'd bring in the civilian clothes from the jet."

"Thank you ma'am," Steve says with a nod of his head.

"Come on," I say, grabbing one of Steve's hands with mine and lacing my fingers with his. "We're upstairs." Steve follows behind me, still keeping ahold of my hand. A little while later, while Steve was in the shower, Clint brings the single change of clothes Steve had on the jet. I step out in the hall with him before leaving the clothes on the bed. "How bad was it? I've never seen him this shaken up after a mission-"

"This wasn't our typical mission," Clint says, shaking his head. He quickly recounts what had happened with Ultron and how the Maximoff twin had gotten in everyone's heads. "I don't know what Cap saw…but if it was anything like Nat or Banner, it wasn't good."

"Thanks Clint," I say, nodding my head. He nods his head once before turning and heading down the hall. When I go back into the bedroom, Steve's clothes have disappeared from the bed. A minute later, Steve comes out of the connected bathroom, running a towel over his wet hair.

I sit down on the edge of the bed and wait. I could tell just by looking at Steve that he had something he wanted to say. "So, this is the safe house you and Barton were talking about?"

I nod my head. "I knew that Clint had this place," I say. "It wasn't my secret to tell though."

"I know," Steve says. When he sits down on the bed next to me, I wind one of my arms through his and lean my head on his shoulder. He smelt of clean soap and the faint hint of his cologne that had clung to the shirt. "I just…it was just a shock when we got here."

"I figured it would be." I say. I let out a sigh, not sure how to broach the next subject. "Clint told me that you all ran into the Maximoff twins." I feel Steve stiffen slightly. "Are you okay?" is all I ask him. I knew Steve; as much as I wanted him to spill everything that he was thinking, if he thought it would upset me any, he wasn't going to tell me.

I look up at him to see his eyebrows knitted together. "The girl she…she shows you these visions or images…" Steve says. I sit up straighter.

When he doesn't continue, I unwind my arm from his and take both of his hands into mine. "Please tell me Steve," I say quietly. "Whatever she showed you, I'm right here, I'm okay. Just tell me and we'll work through it together." He doesn't say anything at first, just shakes his head as he keeps looking down, one of his thumbs running over my wedding set. I pull my hands away from his before reaching for the chain around my neck. Pulling the ring off the chain, I grab Steve's left hand and slide the ring onto his fourth finger. "Talk to me Steve. I am your wife and I love you. I may not be an Avenger, but _we_ are a team. Don't shut me out, please."

Steve looks me in the eye for a moment before looking down at our hands, our left hands which were side by side. With a heavy sigh, he recounts the vision that Wanda Maximoff had given him:

* * *

 _I stand on the front steps of Rhiannon's townhouse in New York. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but at the same time everything seemed wrong. A second later, a blood-curdling scream sounds from the other side of the door. Despite having never heard her make that noise, I knew it was Rhiannon. When I try the door, it's locked. Rhiannon keeps screaming as I attempt to break down the door. Finally, it gives way and as I enter the house I call out her name. I hear her screaming my name, screaming in pain, from somewhere. I run through the house, looking in every room for here. I finally find her in the bedroom. When I enter the room, she's lying on the ground, blood pouring out of her stomach. I kneel down beside her, desperately asking what happened, who did this to her. I press down on her stomach to try to stem the bleeding but it keeps coming; this much blood shouldn't be coming out of her._

" _Who did this to you?" I ask her again._

 _Her next words send ice running through my veins. "You did." I freeze and look at her face, her piercing blue eyes staring straight at my soul, the very core of me. "You did this to me Steve. You said you'd always protect me-"_

" _I know, I-"_

" _You said you'd keep me safe-"_

" _I'm so sorry, Rhiannon. Please, just stay with me-"_

" _You promised me Steve. I hurt so bad- you promised you'd keep me safe. You said you loved me, that you'd never let anything hurt me-"_

" _Rhiannon, please, just stay with me. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" As the apologies spill from my lips, the light leaves my wife's eye and she goes limp in my arms…_


	10. Chapter 10

That night, I lay awake, staring wide eyed at the wall across the room. Steve was asleep, my head resting on his chest. The vision he had told me about had shaken me more than I had initially told Steve. An image of what he saw was running through my head, but what bothered me most was what the vision meant. Steve doubted that he could uphold his promise to me to keep me safe. I hug myself tighter to him, his arms instinctively pulling me closer. Did he doubt that I trusted him? Was it because I had taken the fighting lessons from Matt? I would hate myself for waking him, but I had to put my mind and his mind at ease as much as I could. "Steve," I whisper into the darkness. Propping myself up on my elbow, I shake his chest a little. "Steve, wake up-"

"What's going on?" he sits straight up, eyes scanning the room for a threat. When he sees nothing, he twists to look back at me. "Are you okay? Why did you-"

"I am okay, Steve, that's the point," I say. Steve scoots back in the bed so that he's leaning against the headboard. "I just…I can't stop thinking about what you told me; about the visio-"

"This is why I didn't want to tell you," Steve says with a sigh. "This is my burden to bear. You-"

"I told you before Steve, we are a team," I say. "If something is bothering you, it's bothering me too. But that's not the point. Look Steve," I turn around in the bed so that I'm facing him and fold my legs under me. "I know that there are some forces in the world that we have no control over. Despite that though, I trust you, one hundred and ten percent, with every fiber in my body, I trust you. I wouldn't have stuck with you this long or even married you if I didn't."

My admission had shocked Steve. Maybe I just didn't tell him enough. "I know," he says, nodding his head. "But I still fear something happening to you every day, every second I'm not around you. I can't help it." I look down at my hands, not sure what to say. "Do you- do you think what I saw is somehow your fault?"

"Not entirely," I say after a short silence. "I just…I just feel like maybe I haven't been the easiest person in the world to live with recently. As Natasha said…I've had an adventurous streak recently."

Steve lets out a sigh as he scoots on the bed so that he's face to face with me. "I told you before, I don't mind that you wanted to learn to fight; I just didn't appreciate you lying about it. Was I thrilled when I saw you start fighting that Legionnaire? No, I wasn't…but that's who you are. You don't back down and you don't hide. As you said before, if that bothered me I wouldn't have stuck with you this long or married you." I blush as Steve leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead. "Look, you're right we're a team; a different sort of team than the Avengers. When I became Captain America, I thought my shot at something like this was over. I can't promise that we'll ever have a farm house in the country or anything…but as long as we're together-"

"We're going to be okay." I say with a half-smile. I lean forward and press my lips to Steve's. "I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me." I hear Steve say as I enter the foyer with Fury.

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower." Fury says to Steve and Tony. "Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

"She's all yours, apparently." Tony says bitterly. "What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know." Fury says with a shrug. "Something dramatic, I hope." He glances down at me, silently telling me to speak up or else he would.

"And I'm going to help him with the dramatic move," I say, looking directly at Steve. He doesn't look as surprised as I thought he would. "As someone once told me, I'm not one to hide."

"Good to see you back in action kid," Tony says.

"Yeah, still pissed at you Tony," I say curtly before turning on my heels towards the door. It would take me a long while before I wasn't pissed at Tony Stark again. I stop out on the front walk; Fury had told me to meet him by the barn, but I needed to say goodbye to Steve first. Steve stops in front of me as Tony walks past him. "It will be a long time before I'm not pissed at him."

"I don't blame you." Steve says. His hands come to rest on my hips as one of my hands rest on the star on his chest. "I know this may be falling on deaf ears, but please try to stay out of any fighting as long as you can."

"You too Captain," I say to him. He murmurs a 'yes ma'am' before leaning down to kiss me. Like all the times before, he slips off his wedding ring and gives it to me on the long chain. Steve gives me one more quick peck before releasing me and walking towards the jet. I stand there and watch him walk towards the jet, the early colors of dawn just barely cutting through the clouds. Clint passes by me, giving the top of my head a ruffle. Once I can't see any of them anymore, I turn back towards the house to see Laura standing on the porch. I wave at her once before walking towards the barn.

"Well you took your sweet time," Fury says as I approach the side of the barn.

"Isn't that the hallmark of superheroes leaving their girls? The long drawn out goodbyes?" I tease Fury. He just lets out a huff of air as he crooks a finger in the air, telling me and Banner to follow him. We round the side of the barn to the back side of it and come face to face with another quinjet. "Do I even want to know where you got this from?"

As we walk up the back ramp, Nick turns back and smirks at me. "Not if you like keeping secrets from your husband." I roll my eyes as I sit in a seat along one of the walls. "Let's just say an old friend lent it to me."

Once we had dropped off Banner at the Tower and picked up Hill, Fury set the jet on a course for somewhere in the Northwest. "So what exactly is our plan?" I ask as I walk to the front of the jet where Hill and Fury were piloting. "And don't just say 'something dramatic'…"

"Well, I figure we're going to need some fire power to start out with," Fury says.

"Do we even know what the team is doing yet?" I ask. "Besides destroying Seoul?"

Hill shakes her head. "I've still got comms up; so I'll know when they're going to make a play against Ultron."

I nod my head as I look out the front windshield. "We should have something for evac too." Fury and Hill both turn their heads to look at me in question. "Well, Ultron hasn't been known so far to do anything quietly. Innocent civilians could be in the way. We should have some evac plans to get them out of the way."

Hill shakes her head as she dials in a number on a keypad. "Sometimes it's a little too obvious that you're married to Captain America."

* * *

"Wilson is in," I say, walking onto the bridge of the helicarrier. "Him and Rhodey will meet us outside city limits." Fury nods his head in confirmation. I gaze around the bridge of the helicarrier. I never did meet our 'old friend' that had brought the carrier back to life; according to Fury, it was for the best that I didn't. Last report from the team was that they were heading to Sokovia. "Where do you want me sir? When we touch down in Sokovia?"

"We'll need all the bodies on the ground that we can utilize to help with evac," he says. "But I could also use your skill up here in the bridge. The choice is yours…"


	11. Chapter 11

" _Glad you like the view Romanoff,"_ Fury's voice says over the comms unit in my ear. " _It's about to get better."_

"Alright, everyone, man the lifeboats, prepare for launch," I yell out. Others down the line and around the hull of the carrier repeat my words. I should've guessed that if I chose to help with evac that Fury was going to put me in charge of it. He also gave me a comms unit so I could stay in contact with him and the team.

" _Nice, right?"_ Fury continues on. " _Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."_

" _Fury, you son of a bitch,"_ I hear Steve say over the comms.

"Steven Grant," I say. "You better watch that language."

My comment earns a couple chuckles over comms. A few seconds later, the hatches on the side of the helicarrier open and the jets on the lifeboats roar to life. My grip on the stabilizing strap tightens as the boats pilot towards the floating hunk of city. It was a good thing I had suggested an evacuation plan.

" _Let's load 'em up,"_ I hear Steve say as the boats near the city. As soon as the boat I was on touches down, the ramps lower and I see Natasha already ushering people onto the boat.

"Long time, no see Romanov," I say to her as I jog off the boat. She gives me a crooked grin as we usher people onto the boat. "Know where my husband is?"

"Right here," I hear Steve's voice say. I look to my right and see him heading towards me. "Thought you agreed to stay away from the fight?"

"Right back at you sweetheart," I say. "These boats can hold as many as they need to and can come back for more. Medics are onboard the helicarrier as well."

"We aren't leaving one civilian behind," Steve says. I nod my head as we usher more people onto boats.

"Hadn't planned on it." Once the boat nearest me was full, I send it off with a wave. I run over to the next boat where Sam was ushering people onto a boat. "You good here?"

"Yeah, we're good," he says.

"Itching to start fighting?" I ask him with a grin.

"Nah, I'm good with this," he says with a shake of his head.

" _Avengers, time to work for a living,"_ I hear Tony say over the comms. "I'm going to head into the market." Sam nods his head at me once before I jog off. A couple minutes later I reach the market area where some crew members where ushering civilians onto a lifeboat. "This the last one," I ask the crew member as an old man hobbles up the ramp.

"Yes ma'am," he says.

"Alright, lock it up and head back to the carrier," I tell him. "There's a couple more still at the edge of the city." The man nods his head at me before walking up the ramp of the lifeboat. Instead of loading up with them, I head back for the edge of the city. I spot Steve standing on the steps of a monument, so I start to head that way.

Steve sees me and talks to me over comms. " _The market clear?"_

"Yes sir," I answer. As I approach him, Thor does as well. "These are the last boats." I tell them pointing to the last couple on the side of the city. I raise an eyebrow as Clint jogs past us. "Where is he-" I'm cut off by the sound of gunfire. Turning my head, I see a quinjet firing at the ground and heading right towards us. Steve grabs me and pulls me to take shelter behind the large monument. Before I'm completely covered though, I feel a sharp pain rip through my leg. " _Holy- son of a- mother-"_ My hand immediately goes down to the source of the pain and I can feel the blood running over my fingers. "I'm hit," I say to Steve once the shooting has stopped.

"Wha-" he follows my line of sight to the bullet wound in my leg. Blood was oozing out of the top of my thigh. Thor flies away to assist Tony and I see Steve looking between me and whatever had happen with Clint. He starts to scoop me into his arms but I push him away.

"Go help Clint," I say. "Help me stand and I can get back to the life boat." He, naturally, starts to argue with me. "I'm fine Steve; go help Clint." Steve begrudgingly helps me stand. It hurt like hell to put wait on my leg, the bullet still somewhere in my leg and even more blood was coming out now. Before Steve can argue further, I press a hand over the wound and start to limp towards the lifeboat. My moving across the debris-filled landscape was slow enough that Clint and Steve catch up with me.

"Slow moving kid?" I hear Clint say as he comes up beside me. Even though he was carrying a child, he puts one of my arms over his shoulder to help alleviate some of the weight on my injured leg.

"You have no idea," I say with a grunt. I look to my left and see Steve carrying a limp blonde haired person. "Who's Steve got?"

"Pietro Maximoff," Clint says. The sadness in Clint voice catches me off guard. I look back at the sharpshooter, who had mashed his lips into a thin line. Quickly, I piece together what had happened: Pietro must have sacrificed himself for Clint and the little boy in his arms. As soon as we reach the lifeboat, a medic runs up to me and Clint and takes my arm from Clint.

The medic immediately calls for assistance and makes me sit down in one of the seat. I start feeling light headed; apparently I had lost too much blood. The last thing I remember was looking around the boat for Steve…

* * *

When I make it back to the helicarrier, my first mission was to find Rhiannon. After I had got Pietro back to the lifeboat, I had stepped back off to check one last time for stragglers. Once the city started falling, I jump back on the nearest lifeboat, but it hadn't been the same one Clint had helped her onto. I was still kicking myself for not bringing her back to the boat. Through the crowd, I spot Clint sitting along a wall, getting his arm stitched up by a medic. "Barton," I say once I near him, capturing his attention. "Where'd they take her?"

I didn't have to clarify who I meant. "I'm not sure," he says, a grim look was crossing his face. "I tried to stick near her, but they rushed her off the boat the second we landed."

"Was she critical?" The medic who was stitching up Clint asks.

"She had a gunshot wound to the thigh," I tell him.

The medic sucks in a short burst of air through his teeth. "Yeah, she'd be critical then." He says, continuing to work on Clint. I clench my fists to hide the shaking. "They were going to bring- shit, where'd that broad say critical would be…I think it was second floor on the starboard side."

I mutter my thanks as I make for the elevators. A few minutes later, after getting directions from a couple of people, I finally find the makeshift critical unit. Surprisingly the first person I see is Natasha. "Nat, what are you doing here?"

An arm of her suit was rolled up and an i.v. tube seemed to be taking blood from her. Instead of answering me though, she simply points past me. "She's in the third room." She says. "Go see her first and then we'll talk."

I nod my head at her once before turning towards the door she pointed at. When I walk in, I have flashbacks to when I saw her after the attack on New York. The doctor that was in the room greets me, immediately knowing who I was. "The bullet lodged itself in her femur. When we land she'll need to be taken into surgery. She also lost a large amount of blood. We won't know the full extent of the damage the bullet caused until we get her into surgery."

"So, she's going to be okay?" I ask, my voice quieted.

The doctor purses her lips. "Like I said, we won't know the full extent of the damage until we get her in surgery. Captain Rogers," the doctor says. "There is a chance we will have to amputate. As soon as we land, she will need to be taken into surgery. This is a very serious, dangerous injury."

I nod my head again and thank her. She nods her head once before stepping out of the room. I move to stand by the side of the gurney Rhiannon was laying on. She looked pale, too pale; the blood transfusion just barely keeping her heart beating. My fingers lightly brush over her forehead; the skin there was cold to the touch. I don't even hear Natasha enter the room. "I remembered from New York that she was O negative," Nat says, coming to stand next to me. "That's why I was hooked up. Figured they could use all the O neg they could get their hands on for her."

"Thanks Nat," I say, my voice was thick. "I thought…I pulled her out of the way. I thought I had her covered. But she still got-"

"This isn't your fault Rogers." Natasha cuts me off. "The only blame here goes to Ultron." I just nod my head. I couldn't properly explain the guilt I was feeling. I knew it wasn't my fault, but I still took the blame on myself. "Fury said she's the reason there was an evac plan for the helicarrier." My head turns of its own accord to look at her in question. "He said she suggested it before we even knew Ultron was targeting Sokovia. All of these civilians are safe because of Rhiannon."

"Then how fair is it that she's laying here?" I say, more bitterly than I had meant to. Natasha doesn't say anything. I reach down the bed and grab Rhiannon's hand into mine; it felt cold and lifeless. "She's going to be fine. We're together, so she's going to be fine…"


	12. Chapter 12

It was times like these that made me glad as hell Laura was nowhere near being an agent or working with the Avengers. Rogers was keeping his cool on the outside, but I could see the tiny cracks. The tiny twitches of worry, the sweat he kept wiping from his brow. No one else in the group could even imagine what Rogers was going through; having seen Laura deliver two kids and that nasty bout of appendicitis she had a couple years back, I had an inkling of an idea. Being married was a different sort of bond. Of course all of us in the waiting room, Natasha, Tony, Thor, Sam Wilson, Rhodey, and I, were worried about Rhiannon. She had become like a nerdy little sister to all of us. When I had helped her onto the lifeboat in Sokovia, I could tell by her rapidly paling skin that the gunshot wound she had sustained was bad. Once we reached the hospital in Warsaw, she was the first person off the helicarrier and into surgery. That had been a couple hours ago and we had yet to receive an update.

"Has anyone checked on Wanda?" Steve asks suddenly. It was the first time I had heard him speak since the nurse had shown us to the waiting room.

"Last I heard she was with her brother," I say. I leave out the part about them needing her to identify his body. "Hill said she'd bring her here when she was done."

Steve nods his head as he continues his pacing. He had been pacing the entire time. Most of us had changed out of our uniforms, but Rogers was still in his. No one dared say anything to him. A couple minutes later, a timid looking aide comes into the room. "Ex-ex-excuse me?" she says. Everyone shoots into standing positions, wondering if the scrub-wearing girl was bringing news of our friend. "N-no English…"

"Czy masz wieści dla nas?" Natasha asks in perfect Polish.

The girl shakes her head as she holds out a small bag I hadn't noticed in her hand. "Mam dać to kapitan Rogers." She says. A shaking hand extends the bag towards Steve. "Jest dobra osobiste żony ."

"It's Rhiannon's personal effects," Natasha translates for us, but looking at Steve. Before anyone can ask her to, she turns back to the aide. "Czy masz jakieś aktualizacje Kapitan Rogers żoną?"

The girl shakes her head again. She looked terrified to be in our presence. "Mówili, że będą się tak szybko, jak tylko mogli z aktualizacją . Słyszałem je powiedzieć-"

"Jeśli nie ma żadnych konkretnych informacji dla nas , nie tracić czasu." Natasha cuts the girl off, anger tinging her words.

The girl takes a step back towards the doors. "Tak proszę pani. Przepraszam." The girl says before leaving the room.

We all look at Natasha for clarification. "She didn't know anything, just what she heard second-hand."

"It would've been better than nothing, Nat," I say as we all, except Steve, sit back down in the chairs that had grown uncomfortable. From where I was sitting, I could still see Rogers. He was staring at the bag in his hand. I watch him as he dumps the contents of the bag into his other hand and then picks up each item, one at a time, before sitting it on a nearby desk: a pair of pearl earrings, a couple of rings, and then another ring on a chain. He slides the ring on the chain off and then slides it onto his ring finger. I had witnessed Steve and Rhiannon's little routine of Steve giving her his wedding band a couple of times before we left on missions. When I had told Laura about it she thought it was sweet. Steve then takes what I guess to be her engagement and wedding band and slides them onto the chain. The chain looked much smaller around Steve's neck, but it also carried a heavier weight.

Movement in the doorway catches my eye and I see Wanda standing there. She looked as if she wasn't sure if she should be here or not. "Ms. Hill told me to come here," she says, an undeniable shake in her voice. "Told me that she would be back later, after sorting some things out with Fury?"

"Have a seat kid," I tell her, patting the empty seat next to me. "We're probably going to be here a while."

She nods her head as she keeps her head down and walks over to sit next to me. Her body language said she felt uncomfortable to be with us. She clears her throat after a couple of minutes. "Hill said that Captain Rogers' wife was…"

"She was hit in the leg," I answer her, quieter than I probably needed to. "They have her in surgery right now."

"Have you not heard anything?" She asks, in an equally hushed voice. A flicker of annoyance flashes through her eyes when I shake my head. "I'll be back." I call after her, but it falls on deaf ears as she leaves the waiting room. Everyone gives me question but I just shrug my shoulder. Twenty minutes later she returns and walks straight up to Rogers. "I got an update on your wife." Steve looks at her expectantly as everyone else gathers around as well. "No one would give me any answers-"

"Could've told you that," Tony mumbles.

"So I found which operating room she is in and listened to the doctors' thoughts," she says. "I couldn't understand a lot of the medical jargon, but it sounded like the bullet tore through her femur. They are using pins to put that back together. The type of bullet that was used, the shrapnel was close to her fe- fermor-"

"Femoral artery," Natasha says. We all had seen enough injuries…we knew that wasn't good.

"Yes, that, they are still working on removing the shrapnel and bone splinters without hitting the artery." Wanda says. "I also heard one of them thinking that if the surgery last more than five hours they would probably have to amputate." Everyone turns their eyes towards Steve. Cap just nods his head and places a hand on Wanda's shoulder. "I hope you don't mind that I did that. I just figured one of us-"

"Thank you Wanda," Steve says. His voice sounded hoarse. "I appreciate it."

Steve removes his hand and turns to start pacing again as everyone else once again sits down in the seats. "She was dreaming about you," Wanda says suddenly. Steve spins around faster than I thought possible to look at her. "I was curious, so I peeked into her head as well. She was dreaming about…it seemed like a date. You both were at…the Lincoln Memorial? I think it's called that. She was walking up and down the stairs, over and over again. You were smiling and cheering her on-"

"She was showing me how she could walk on stairs without any difficulty anymore," Steve says. I watch him as he sinks down into a chair, sitting for the first time since we had gotten to the hospital. "It was our first date. She hadn't been out of the hospital for long and she was showing me how she was able to use stairs again. I'd never seen anyone so happy to walk up and down stairs." Steve's gaze falls down to the floor. "That was the moment I fell in love with her."

The room falls even quieter than before. I could even feel a lump forming in my own throat. "She has a good soul." Wanda says. "It's pure, she seems very kind."

Steve continues to stare at the floor as Wanda moves and sits back down next to me. I pat her knee, giving her a half smile before scooting myself down in the chair and shutting my eyes, hoping for a little sleep. It had been a long day.

* * *

Rhiannon had told me once about doing meditation when she was attending yoga. She explained that, basically, her mind went blank and she thought about nothing. At her insistence, I had attempted it, but was unsuccessful. Now though, sitting in this waiting room while she was in surgery, my mind was blank. I couldn't think about anything, it hurt too much.

It was going on hour four of her surgery. The only updates provided were from Wanda when she snuck back to the area where the operating rooms were. I was staring at her wedding set, trying to picture how they sat on her finger. She hated her fingers, complained that they were too 'chubby' or too short. I always thought her fingers looked delicate, flying across a keyboard, interlocking with mine. I never paid much attention to how the rings sat on her fingers though. I remember thinking one time how they looked like they would probably slide around her fingers, but she never complained of it. I did remember her saying once how she thought gold looked gaudy on her and how that night I check the color of the engagement ring I wanted to give her. There were certain things she was particular on, things I was sure others would find trying, but they just made me love her even more. I was lost in thoughts, or lack thereof, that I didn't even notice the man in scrubs and surgical cap walk into the room. Thor had to shake my shoulder to gain my attention.

"You're Mrs. Rogers' husband?" The man asks, his accent thick, but his English understandable. I nod my head. "I am Dr. Hindal. I apologize for not giving you updates. Your wife's surgery was very delicate and time sensitive. However, I do have good news." A smile breaks across the man's face as I feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders. "We were able to remove all of the shrapnel and bone fragments without damaging her femoral artery. Her blood pressure is still a little low from…" The man continues on, explaining her condition, but it was lost on me. I sink down in the chair once again, relief washing over me.


	13. Chapter 13

The nurse walks quickly out of the room, just narrowly missing the empty cup I had chucked at him. As he had walked out, Steve had approached the doorway. "What did I tell you about throwing things at nurses?"

I cross my arms over my chest and pout like a petulant child. "The day they let me out of this stupid bed, I'll stop."

Steve just raises an eyebrow at me as he sits a bag of food down on the bedside table. "Doc said once you get back to New York they can start getting you out of bed."

I roll my eyes as I watch him set up our dinner. It had been four weeks since my surgery; two weeks since I had been transferred to a hospital in London. According to the doctors, the traveling could be too taxing on me, so they were moving me in short bursts until I made it back to New York. "We won't be in New York until next week…at the earliest according to humpty-dumpty that just left the room."

I knew I was being trying…but dang it, I was restless. At least six weeks in bed to let the pins and rods set and then who knew how long of physical therapy. "Just a little more patience and then we'll be back in New York," Steve says…again. I stab a piece of chicken with my fork with a little too much force. "I do have some good news for you though. Helen was able to get her Cradle up and running again at Stark's. She thinks it may be able to aide in your recovery."

I nod my head as I chew my food. At this point I was willing to do anything to get out of this bed. "Good," I say. "Maybe by the time we get back to New York my aim will be better."

* * *

There's a welcome party waiting for me when I arrive at the Tower. Tony, Pepper, Thor, Natasha, Sam, and Dr. Helen Cho, plus her team, are standing on the landing platform as Dr. Cho's team pushes my bed off the jet. "All that's missing is the finger-painted 'Welcome Home' banner," I say with a chuckle once I reach the group.

"Don't worry," Natasha says. "You've got enough finger-paintings and drawings from Lila waiting on you inside."

I give Natasha a thumbs-up as the team pushed my bed past them and inside. Half an hour later, after much difficulty transferring me from the bed to the Cradle, I was ready for my first round of treatment from Dr. Cho. "This won't heal the bone," she says as she starts entering figures into the machine. "But it can help to strengthen and regenerate a lot of the muscle you lost from the operation. With this, you should make a full, if not better, recovery in a shorter time than the doctors in Warsaw told you."

"You are my new favorite person," I say, giving her a wide smile. Steve walks in the room a second later and I repeat my praise to him. "Helen is my new favorite person. Sorry, honey, you've been bumped."

Steve chuckles as he stands next to the cradle. "As long as you aren't throwing stuff at her, I'll be fine with the demotion." He says. The smile stays on my face as he leans down and kisses my forehead.

"If treatment goes well today and tomorrow, I don't see why we can't have you up on some crutches in the next couple of days." I actually squeal in delight.

"Keep giving her good news like that Helen and she may just leave me for you," Steve jokes.

I grab his hand that was nearest me and kiss the back of it. "Why would I leave the one thing that's kept me half way sane this past month?"

* * *

 _Two Months Later_

"And no one can access it without our permission?" I ask Tony, again; I could practically feel his eye roll. Him, Steve, and I were making our way down a hallway towards Steve and I's apartment in the new Avenger's facility. The past two months I had helped Tony with the security protocols of the facility, designing the apartment with Steve and Tony, and also working on my physical therapy. Dr. Cho had been right; the Cradle (new and improved) was accelerating my recovery. I now only required a full leg brace and a cane to walk…slowly.

One of my major stipulations about moving into the facility was assuring me and Steve would have some privacy. It took a lot of convincing, but I finally gave in to living at the facility. I had hopes that the apartment wouldn't live up to my expectations and that we could get a place off site. "Yes, no one can access the apartment without you or Rogers' permission." Tony tells me again.

I nod my head. "Once we get settled in I'll take a look at the security measures," I say, earning a groan of annoyance from Tony. "I think it's slipped your mind that I'm still pissed at you over-"

"Yeah, yeah, old news," Tony mumbles. Once we reach the end of the hallway, I stare at Steve who shakes his head, wanting to stay out of it. "Now, welcome home Rogers." He waves a hand at a console that had slid out of the wall. I place my hand on it, letting it scan my print. A second later, I hear the clicking of locks unlocking.

Tony opens the door, which was, surprisingly a French door and not one of the industrials ones I had seen throughout the facility. He steps to the side, letting Steve and I step in. Instead of stepping inside with us, he tells Steve that he'll meet him out front for Thor's leaving. We tell Tony bye as he leaves us, shutting the door behind him. Steve and I stand in the front entryway. "This looks…"

The apartment actually looked like an apartment. It was an open floor plan, with a living area, dining area, breakfast nook, and kitchen. A hallway towards the back of the area lead to what I had been told was our bedroom and an office for both of us. "This looks nice." Steve says, finishing my statement.

"It does," I say. "It looks like home."

"So you like it?" Steve asks.

"I love it," I say. Steve leans down and kisses me. We were home, we had our home. When Steve pulls away, I step closer to him and lean my head on his chest as he wraps an arm around my shoulders.

"Is your leg hurting you?" Steve asks.

"Yeah," I say, nodding my head. "I should probably sit down." Steve let's an amused chuckle as he guides me over the couch. I was doing much better getting around, but I did still have my limits. Once I'm set up on the couch with my leg propped up, Steve sits down on the edge of the couch. "We'll have to do the grand tour later. I'll cook dinner when I get back as well."

"You're getting better at it," I tell him with a smile.

"Well, as the cute tech girl I met after I came out of the ice told me…I'm a fast learner." Steve says before leaning forward and kissing my forehead. He gives my hand a light squeeze before standing up.

"Love you," I yell after him as he walks towards the door. He returns the sentiment before leaving the apartment. Once the door clicks shut, I lean my head back on the cushion of the navy colored couch. The pain in my leg was already subsiding; maybe I'd be able to help with dinner. Random thoughts ran through my mind: wondering if the bedding set I had picked out was in the bedroom, if the rest of the team would want to join us for dinner, if Tony had been right about the security measures, maybe I should start cutting him some slack- A knock on the door breaks me out of my train of thought. I yell towards the door that I'd be there in a second, warning the person on the other side of my slow moving. When I open the door, it's someone I don't recognize, an administrative assistant looking way too eager for his job.

"I have your mail Mrs. Rogers," he says, eagerly holding out a stack of mail.

"Thank you," I say, grabbing the two inch thick stack. "You can just call me Rhiannon; no one calls me Mrs. Rogers." I add, giving him a grin. 'Mrs. Rogers' just reminded me too much of the children's television show.

"Oh, my apologies ma'am," he says, his smile never faltering. "And I just want to say, it's an honor to work for the Avengers, ma'am."

The kid was rubbing off on me. "What's your name?"

"Stevie, or well, Steve, or Steven," he says quickly, almost fumbling over his words. "And yes, before you ask, I was named after Captain Rogers." The boy looked _way_ too proud of himself…but it was endearing.

Ah, so that's why he looked so eager to deliver mail…he was a fan. "Well, I'll be sure to mention that to him when he returns." I tell him. I swear his chest swells a little. "It's was nice meeting you Stevie."

Stevie's hand snaps up in a salute. "The honor was mine, ma'am."

"You don't have to salute me," I say. "I'm not military."

"I know," he says. A serious look crosses his face. "But you're part of the Avengers team. You deserve the same amount of respect."

I tip my head at him and thank him again. He waves wildly at me before turning and walking down the hallway. As I shut the door, I shake my head; I was definitely going to have to point the kid out to Steve. When I walk back over to the couch, I realize I had forgotten my cane. I smile to myself, progress every day. Once I'm seated, I start to flick through the mail. Most of it was junk, forwarded from New York and a couple of my other properties. At the bottom of stack though, was a hand-addressed envelope. It immediately struck me as odd. The envelope was addressed to the townhouse in New York. Also, who sent hand written letters anymore? I debate on waiting to open it when Steve got back or not. It was addressed to me, in small scrawling handwriting. After a minute, I decide to go ahead and open it. Inside was a single piece of folded notebook paper covered with the same handwriting as the envelope. As I unfold it, I start reading:

 _Rhiannon,_

 _I know that you don't know me, but my name is James Barnes. I grew up with your husband, Steve. I do know that you know me as the Winter Soldier. This letter is not meant to frighten or alarm you. I'm not even sure if you'll receive it._

 _I'm aware that Steve is searching for me, which is why I am writing. I'm writing to ask you to tell him to stop. I remember who I was before, but I am not that same man. I may not be the Winter Soldier anymore, but I am still not the Bucky he remembers. When I'm ready, I will reach out to him._

 _I would address this to him, but I know he wouldn't listen. Steve always was a sucker for pretty brunettes, plus the fact that he married you says something. I know you don't owe me anything, but I do think we are in mutual agreement on this matter. Take care of him for me._

 _-James_


	14. Chapter 14

When Steve returns later that evening I'm standing at the refrigerator, making myself a glass of water. "Look at that," Steve says, hanging his shield on a hook next to the door. "You're up without your cane."

"I am," I say, calmer than I expected. "The mail was brought about an hour or so ago and when I got up to answer the door, I left the cane behind without realizing it." Steve nods his head as he undoes the straps on his gloves. "Steve," I say, capturing his attention with my eerily calm tone. He picks up on it and looks at me with a concerned stare. "There's a letter on the coffee table that you need to read." Steve stares at me for a second longer before striding over to the coffee table in front of the couch. The letter was sitting, unfolded, where I had left it after reading it. I felt strangely calm, rationally I should probably be freaking out over the letter. I watch Steve as he picks up the letter. His eyes quickly scan it, that wrinkle in his forehead he gets when he gets angry growing more pronounced with every line. When he's finished reading it he looks up at me, at a loss for words. I sip at my water as we just stare at each other. After a minute, I finally speak up. "As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with him."

"Rhiannon," Steve briefly stares down at the letter again before starting to walk over towards me. "I can't just stop. He's my fa-"

"Family?" I finish. "I know Steve, but so am I. Look," I meet him halfway between the kitchen and the living room. "He's not completely writing you off. He's just telling you to back off; which I agree you should do. You have this whole new team you have to train, practically a new agency…they're looking towards you for leadership. If they see you running off chasing leads on someone who, in their eyes, is a former master assassin…that's not good." Steve lets out a sigh, looking down at the letter still in his hand. I knew though that I had said the right words to get through to him. I hadn't said them just to get him to do what I wanted, I sincerely meant them. Steve going after Bucky still scared the living daylights out of me. As much as it made my skin prickle to know that he knew where I had lived in New York, a small part of my brain was glad that Bucky had wrote the letter. Steve doesn't respond verbally, instead he nods his head. "You go get out of that suit. I'll start something for supper and you can finish."

* * *

Life at the new facility falls into an easy routine. A month after we had arrived, I was able to take the brace off my leg. Helen had officially decreed me healed; _almost better than new,_ she had said right before I tackled her with a big hug. One thing I had realized I missed while my leg was healing was the training with Matt. I didn't want to train for the same reasons as before; I just generally missed the rush I felt from the exercise. This time though, I was going about it the right way. When I first proposed my request to Sam, in front of Steve so he knew all about it, he laughed at me. "Oh wait," he says, realizing that I wasn't laughing. "You're serious?"

"Yes I'm serious," I say. "I miss it. Plus, I need to do some sort of exercise to keep my leg in good shape."

"But why me?" Sam says, looking at Steve briefly before looking back at me. "There are plenty of-"

"I want you to do it Sam," I say. "I trust you. I think you would best for it."

Sam lets out a sigh as he places his hands on his hips and looks at Steve. "Got an opinion Cap?"

Steve briefly looks at me before turning and looking at Sam. "Be careful man," he says with a smile creeping onto his face. "What's the phrase? 'Though she be little she is fierce'." Sam just shakes his head in amusement as Steve jerks his head towards the door. "We've got a meeting with Stark in ten minutes."

"That's right," I say. "See you tomorrow morning." I throw back at him as me and Steve head towards the door.

Before they shut, Sam throws one last comment to me. "My alarm doesn't go off before eight…so don't expect any early mornings!"

* * *

Another new norm that settled in at the facility was weekly dinners with the team. It started out innocent enough; I had invited Sam once to Steve and I's apartment, a couple weeks later Wanda, and before I knew it Sam, Wanda, Natasha, and Tony and Rhodey when they were at the facility were at our apartment every Thursday for dinner. One particular week, Wanda had come over early to help me cook the dinner for that week. "You know where I grew up it would be considered at crime for never having ate fried chicken," I say to Wanda.

An eyebrow shoots up as she watches me scoop flour into a Ziploc bag. "I thought you moved around a lot?"

"True," I say with a shrug. "But the General was a Tennessee man; I was born there…so we called it home base." I pass her the bag and instruct her to season it to her liking. "Just use your instincts, it's not rocket science." Wanda nods her head once as she starts sprinkle in the seasonings a little at a time. I glance over at her as I pull apart the chicken. I had an ulterior motive for inviting her over early. "I don't think I've ever had the chance to thank you." She stops her work and looks at me, her eyes slightly wide. "Steve told me how you kept them updated during the surgery on my leg. You didn't have to do that…so thank you."

The enhanced human to my left lets out a sigh as she closes the bag and sets it on the counter. "Like I told them that day…someone deserved some good news."

Subconsciously I bite the inside of my cheek to keep the lump in my throat from forming. Wanda had lost the person closest to her that day, unfairly. "Steve mentioned you're doing very well in your training," I say. "But you know…if you ever need someone to talk to about something besides tactics and strategies, our door is open." I saw a kindred spirit in Wanda; both of us had lost all of our family unfairly at a young age. Wanda mutters a quiet thank you as I start placing the chicken in the flour bag. "Not literally of course though because of the security…so just send me a text or something first…" Wanda lets out the rare laugh as I hear Sam and Steve walk into the apartment.

* * *

"Aw man," Sam says as I walk into the medic bay. "Who told you?"

"It pays to be friendly with the interns Sam," I say, giving him a smirk. Apparently Sam had just had a run in with an intruder on the facility's property. "So what happened?"

Sam grumbles as the medic cleans some blood off a scrap on his forearm. "You can't tell Cap-"

"Are you kidding-"

"Some guy showed up…I don't know. He kept shrinking and growing." Sam shakes his head as my eyebrows mash together. "He made off with-"

"Woah, woah, woah," I say, holding a hand up. "Did you say 'shrinking and growing'?" Sam nods his head, looking at me warily. "I think I know who our visitor was…" I turn to walk out of the room but then stop, turning to look at Sam again. "Oh, yeah, you're okay right? Like physically okay?"

Sam smirks at me. "I'm good." I give him a thumbs-up before turning once again to leave the room. "Hey! Who was that guy?" he yells after me.

"Not sure, exactly," I answer him as I continue walking. "But I know who will know." Half an hour after finding the old phone number, I dial my old boss' number. When the call connects, I speak before the person on the other end can. "Hank Pym…who did you send to break into my house?"


	15. Chapter 15

"His name is Scott Lange," I say, dropping a file down in front of Sam. With one hand he spins the file to face him, opening it to read the info I had compiled on him. "Working with Hank Pym, used to be a scientist with S.H.I.E.L.D., used to also be my boss. Regardless, he's a friendly."

"Didn't seem too friendly when he was breaking and entering," Sam murmurs. I sit down in the chair across the table from him as his eyes scan over the file. "Ex-con?" he says with a snort.

"Well, we can't all be eagle scouts." I say with a shrug. "Besides, he's not a threat. The whole breaking and entering thing was a big misunderstanding."

Sam nods his head, accepting my judgement. "So you worked for this Pym?"

"I did," I say. "Right out of college for a few years; then S.H.I.E.L.D. snatched me up." Sam nods his head again, shutting the file this time. "And don't worry, I won't tell Steve about this incident; already wiped from the records."

Sam reaches a fist across the table, encouraging me to bump mine against his. "I knew you were my favorite."

* * *

A few months later, on a Tuesday, I wake with a start. My suddenly jerking up in bed wakes my light-sleeper of a husband. He immediately inquires what is wrong. I shake my head, pressing my palm to my forehead. "I don't know…" I muse, my eyes look around the room; nothing was out of place or giving me a weird vibe. "I just…I don't know. It must have been a bad dream or something." I lay back on the bed, Steve propping himself up on his arm to look down at me, not believing me. "I just don't feel right. Something is off about today."

One of Steve's eyebrows arches. "It's only four in the morning…the day hasn't even started yet."

"I know," I shake my head, trying to dispel the uneasy feeling settling in my stomach. "It just feels like something bad is going to happen today."

Steve's lips press together momentarily before he leans down and presses his lips to my forehead. Instinctively we both move so that Steve is lying on his back and I'm cradled in the crook of his arm, resting my head on his chest. We lay there in silence, me willing the steady rhythm of Steve's heartbeat to lull me to sleep. After twenty minutes, I was still wide awake. I move my head to look up at Steve; he was still wide awake also. "You should really sleep."

"I can't," I say. I lay my head back down for a moment before lifting it again, this time sitting all the way up and turning so that I could face Steve. He moves up in the bed as well, leaning back against the headboard. "You don't have any missions planned for today, do you?"

"No," he says with a shake of his head. I nod my head, the anxiety in my stomach easing slightly. "Maybe…maybe I could just stay home today." My eyes widen a fraction as Steve reaches over, grabs his phone and starts typing out a message. Steve never offered to stay home. "Don't look so shocked," he says, taking in my expression. "I can take a day off every now and then."

"You don't have to just because…" I stop myself and shake my head. It was silly of me to argue with him; besides, deep down I would love to spend a lazy day with him. "Thank you. I would like that." We both lay back down, drifting in and out of sleep for a couple more hours until the sun starts peeking into our room. Out of bed, we start to run through our usual morning routine, only this time it was less rushed and we both dressed more casually. Our phones are switched to silent as we move towards the kitchen to start to prepare some breakfast. Conversation flows freely as we work in tandem to cook the food. The uneasy feeling in my stomach was still there though. We fill each other in on little things we may had forgotten over the past few days: how the team was doing in training, the new tech Tony wanted the team to implement, a couple senators that wanted the team to visit with their children. "Oh, I forgot to tell you yesterday…" I say as we move our plates now full of food over to the table to eat. "I got a call from the realtor, the properties in Malibu, the Hampton's, D.C., and New York sold."

"Good," Steve says with a mouth full of food, nodding his head. "What about the others?"

I try to hide the sheepish grin on my face by taking a bite of food. Steve notices and gives me a deadpan look. We had agreed to put all the properties on the market except the Maine property, that one being our favorite. "I'm sorry!" I say, once the bite of food was gone. "I just can't part with the others. I grew up at the Tennessee property, plus we got married there; and the Paris one is where we spent the first night of our honeymoon…"

"Alright," Steve says, flushing lightly, memories of that night surely resurfacing. "I see your point." I smirk at him as we continue to eat. After the dishes from breakfast are rinsed and placed in the dishwasher, we set out to finish some chores around the apartment. Despite it being a "lazy day", I needed to keep busy; I still couldn't shake the anxiety in the pit of my stomach. Near noon found us in what had been Steve's office, but was now a library/spare bedroom. Steve had pointed out a month or so ago that he had never used it, so it may be better served for other purposes. Since I had an almost overwhelming book collection and Steve was starting to acquire one himself, a library seemed like a logical choice. After filling another shelf, Steve lets out a sigh. "I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get hungry-" An undeniable churning of my stomach sends me running out of the room and to the bathroom.

My face hovering over the toilet bowl, I empty the contents of my stomach in painful heaves. Steve is right behind me, gathering my hair out of the way and placing a cool rag on the back of my neck. Once I'm finished and the contents of the bowl flushed away, I shut the lid and move to lean back against the wall. "So that's why I was feeling off this morning," I say weakly. My stomach was still churning, but there was nothing else in it.

"We should get you down to the medic bay," Steve says, couching down in front of me while dabbing the rag on my forehead. "Make sure it isn't anything serious."

I nod my head. "It's just a stomach bug." I say as he helps me stand. "One of my techies just got back from having the flu."

* * *

"How long has it been since you've had a physical?" the doctor says, staring at my medical chart on his tablet. The guy looked near my age, surely just out of med school.

I let out a snort of laughter. "When I was shot in the leg, I guess?"

"That doesn't count," he says. "You should have yearly physicals."

"I don't need yearly physicals," I say, rolling my eyes at him. "Trust me, when I need to go to a doctor…I go." Before he can say anything, Steve's phone rings in his pocket. He pulls it out, murmuring that it was Sam. I nod my head, telling him to go ahead and answer it. As he walks away, pressing the phone to his ear, I turn my attention back to the doctor. "Look, I just need to know if this is food poisoning or a stomach bug."

The doctor starts to say something, clearly aggravated with me, but Steve comes up to us. "We found Rumlow." The team had been searching for the former S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA agent for some time now.

I nod my head as Steve presses a quick kiss to my temple while simultaneously handing me his wedding ring, telling me he loved me. Steve swiftly heads towards the door. "Give him a swift kick in the ass for me!" I yell after him before he's out of earshot. I was still, justly, angry at Rumlow for the torture he had inflicted on me in D.C.; I'm sure Steve was too.

"Alright then," the doctor says once the door had slid back shut. "Regardless, I'm recommending doing a full work-up. Just so we at least have the information on record." I roll my eyes but bite my tongue; it wasn't like I had anything else to do today now that Steve was gone. The doctor starts to run through the countless questions, while periodically testing a reflex or having me follow his pen-light. "Is there any chance you could be pregnant?" I laugh out loud at this question.

"No," I say, taking in the doctors confused look. "That's not possible for me and Steve."

The doctor tilts his head side to side as he taps something on the tablet. "Pregnancies can be unexpected, even if you-"

"No, not possible as in my husband is sterile," I say. Out of curiosity if it was even possible to conceive, Steve had gotten tested a number of months ago. With the super-soldier serum, no one had ever brought up to Steve whether or not he'd be able to father children; the possibility had never even crossed his mind back then. The results, the test told us, that there was less than a one-in-a-billion chance. The doctor immediately started telling us there were other options if we wanted a child; we declined. "So no, there's no chance I'm pregnant."

This doctor really did not like me. "Still, I'm going to add that to your lab work." Before he leaves he tells me a nurse will come in to draw some blood. I roll my eyes again as he leaves. Half an hour later, my stomach actually feeling a lot better (thank you Phenergan), the doctor comes back in the room. I arch an eyebrow at the smug smile on his face. "Well, Mrs. Rogers, your lab work all looks good. You don't have food poisoning or the stomach bug."

"Okay…" I say, urging him to continue on. "So what's wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you," he says. I'm about to fire back a smart-alleck remark when his news on why I was throwing up stuns me into silence. "Congratulations, you are pregnant…"


	16. Chapter 16

Of course I had him run the test four more times; but they all came back the same, I was super-duper one hundred percent pregnant, seven weeks along to be exact. After I was handed some literature and a regimen of prenatal vitamins I head back to the apartment in a daze. I was in shock. As Steve and I had discussed before, it's not that we didn't want children; it just wasn't something either of us ever thought about. Once I reach the apartment I toss the literature into the trash (really, it was basic common sense stuff) and tuck the vitamin regimen under my side of the sink in the bathroom. _I have to tell Steve,_ was my first thought. I calculate in my head where the team could be and then decide against it; this was something that he had to be told in person. He would be gone a couple days at least; I could hold out that long. Grabbing my tablet from the top of the dresser, I tap into the missions file; they were still in route to the location. My heart gives a lurch _needing_ to hear Steve's voice in that moment. I'd still be able to contact him. I grab my phone and dial up the jet's secure line without giving it another thought. Half a minute later, Natasha answers. "Stark or Rhiannon?"

"It's me," I say with a laugh.

"You sound like you're feeling better." I hear her say something away from the phone, surely telling Steve it was me. "Rogers told me you got sick earlier."

"Yeah," I say, subconsciously laying a hand on my stomach. "Thank god for those pharmaceutical cocktails."

"Good," she says. "Stay that way. Here's Rogers."

I thank her, not sure if she heard it as the phone is passed to Steve. "Feeling better?" he asks.

"I am," I say. I knew he was going to ask what was wrong with me, and I knew I couldn't lie about it. "They aren't real sure what was wrong with me."

"What do you mean?" Confusion tinged his tone.

"It's not the flu or food poisoning," I say, wandering out of the bedroom and towards the living room. "So they are going to run a few more tests, if the nausea comes back."

"Okay," Steve says, the answer somewhat placating him. "Just rest today, okay?"

"Will do," I say. "Unless you need my help with anything…"

"We'll be fine," Steve says. "Should be back before the week is out."

I nod my head, even though he can't see it. "I was serious when I said give him a kick in the ass for me."

"Don't worry; he'll get what he deserves." Steve says, a slight menace in his tone.

"Be careful too," I tell him. Rumlow had taken on an even more dangerous identity since his S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA days; which is one reason why the team was so eager to get him locked away. Again, my hand subconsciously lies on my stomach. "Come home to me Captain. That's an order."

There was a pause on the line. I had never said anything like that to Steve; maybe he could pick up that there was something else going on here that I wasn't telling him. If he could, he doesn't say anything. "Yes ma'am. Love you."

"Love you too," I say back. With a promise to call when they were heading back, Steve ends the call. I sit the phone down on the coffee table in front of me, letting my head drop into my hands. A pit forms in the bottom of my stomach; I wanted him here, I wanted to share this news with him, I needed him here to figure out how I felt about it. I was happy; of course I was happy, I was pregnant. But, how would Steve feel about it? He would be happy; I know he would be. How would this affect our lives? Would we stay here at the facility? Would he run out for every mission like he had been? I felt like I was going to burst. I needed to talk to someone about this. Grabbing my phone up again, I dial the first person I think of. The phone rings a couple of times before the person on the other end finally answers with an uncertain hello. "Laura?"

"Rhiannon?" Laura says, her voice not as uncertain now. "How are you?"

"I…I'm not sure." I say honestly. "I just…I need someone to talk to and you're the first person I thought of."

"Okay, hold on," she says, concern back in her voice. Away from the phone she tells, the kids I'm sure, that she would be right back. "Okay, what's going on?"

I let out a sigh before starting in. "I haven't told anyone yet. I literally found out like two hours ago, so you can't say anything to _anyone."_ After she promises to keep my secret I recap to her the events of the morning, including the big news. "I'm seven weeks along. I just…"

"This wasn't planned; I'm guessing?" I tell her it wasn't, but that we will keep it. "Well then, first thing to do is simple: be happy about it."

"I am," I say. "I am…I'm beyond happy. I just…"

"You're still in shock." Laura finishes the thought for me; this is why I called her. "That's natural; especially if this was something you were told wasn't possible. I bet once you tell Steve though…that joy will come."

"I want to tell him so bad," I almost whine into the phone. "But he's out on a mission."

"Yes, this is definitely news you deliver in person." She says.

"Well, as soon as he steps off that jet…I'll probably shout it at him."

"There you go," Laura says with a laugh. "That's the happy."

"Any other pointers?" I had a feeling I was going to be going to Laura for advice more than I would a doctor.

"Oh, plenty of them," Laura says with a laugh. "I'll text you the names of a couple books that'll be good. You'll be peeing a lot, and I mean a lot more now. Morning sickness won't go away for another month or so…"

"Great," I grumble.

"Just make sure you stay hydrated," she says. "And find a really good doctor; one you trust."

I grumble again. "I don't trust any doctor as far as I could throw them." It's a habit I had acquired as a small child. Daniel lamented taking me to check-ups. As I stare down at my stomach, a thought crosses my mind. "Oh my god Laura…my husband is a super-soldier…"

There was a pause; she wasn't catching on what I was thinking. "Yes…"

"No, Laura, my husband, that I conceived this child with, is a _super-soldier_ with _super-soldier serum_ in him," I say. I stand up and start pacing, worrying creeping through every pore of my body. "They told us we may not have a child because of that! What if the pregnancy is shorter or what if he comes out all muscled up, or what if she's sickly like Steve was before the serum?"

"It's going to be okay," Laura says in a soothing tone. "But you know what you sound like right now?"

"A crazy lady," I say with a slightly manic chuckle.

"No, you sound like a mother."

* * *

After another ten minutes of Laura assuring me that my child wasn't going to be born with two heads, we finally end our conversation, Laura promising again to keep my secret. Once I hang up with her, I immediately jump into another phone call with the only doctor in the world I trusted. "Rhiannon," Dr. Cho's voice greets me cheerily. "How are you?"

"Um, well, loaded question," I say. "And no, it's not my leg. My leg is still perfect."

"What's the matter then?" Helen asks, this time concern in her voice.

"Well, I'm actually fine, more than fine actually…I'm pregnant." I tell her. "I just found out a little bit ago."

"That's amazing news," she says, obviously happy for me. "What did Steve say? I'm sure he's even more excited-"

"I haven't told him yet," I say. "He's out on a mission, so I haven't told him."

"Oh…" the confusion was back. "Then why…"

"You are the only doctor I trust," I say. "I know you're not a gynecologist or an OB/GYN but you are the best geneticist in the world. And with Steve's enhancements…"

"Ah," she says, catching onto my train of thought. "I see. Well I'm not in the country right now. I'm back in Seoul. Would you be able to fly out here?"

I run a hand through my hair, letting out a sigh. Could I sneak to Seoul (the thought sounded crazy in my own mind) and back before Steve returned home? "Yeah, let me see what I can do," I say without another thought. "I'll call you when I'm leaving."

I knew exactly who I could coerce into finding me a pilot to fly me to Seoul. Stephen, my favorite administrative assistant, stands up at attention as I walk into his office. "Mrs. Roger- er, I mean Rhiannon…how can I help you today?"

When I'm standing across from his desk from him I lower my voice. "I need a pilot."

"A pilot?"

I roll my eyes, why was everyone so dumbfounded by me today. "Sorry," I apologize immediately, feeling bad for rolling my eyes (don't tell me the crazy hormones were kicking in already). "Yes, a pilot. I need a pilot who will fly me to Seoul and keep quiet about it."

"I think…" his eyebrows mash together as he sits back down in his chair to look something up on his computer. "Yeah, I know someone who'll do it." I thank him as he types a little more on the computer. "Okay, your flight is set. You'll leave whenever you're ready."

"Thank you Stephen," I say, writing down the name of the pilot and the jet number on a post-it. "Track our flight, once we're in the air, delete the record of us leaving. If you have any problems, call me and I'll erase it from the air." Stephen nods his head and I can still see the confusion on his face. "I'm fine Stephen," I tell him, even though I don't need to. "I'm just working on a surprise for Steve."


	17. Chapter 17

"You got here a lot quicker than I thought," Helen says as I walk into her lab.

I shrug a shoulder. "This baby isn't getting any smaller," I say. "If there's anything, _special,_ about it. I'd like to know before it gets here."

"I can understand…" Helen says. "So, we are going to run the full gamut. No stone left unturned."

"I just want to make sure he or she is okay," I say. "With Steve…"

"I fully understand that part." She says, giving me a kind smile. Helen steps up to me and places a hand on the top of my arm. It was an act she had done many, many times when I was getting fed up with physical therapy. "If anything is going on…we'll find out, okay?"

I nod my head, a couple tears falling down my face I hadn't even realized were there. I quickly wipe them away as we both move farther into the lab.

After a battery of test, more than I could ever count, everything was normal. "It looks like they may have a faster metabolism, which in turn is going to affect you but other than that…you both look very healthy."

"Thank you Helen," I say with a sigh of relief.

"We'll set up monthly appointments and I'll also get you set up with an OB/GYN in the states." She says, handing me an envelope with all my test results on it. "Next time, I'll come to you."

* * *

A couple hours later and I was airborne, heading back home. The pilot Stephen had procured for me hadn't said a word to me, just how I liked it; I knew he wasn't going to tell anyone about our trip. About halfway home, he finally speaks up. "Ma'am, you may want to check the news." My brows furrow together as I grab a tablet and bring it to life. After a few clicks, I had most of the major news outlets pulled up and they were reporting the same thing: the Avengers had caused an explosion in Lagos, killing civilians.

"Can we double time this jet?" I ask.

"Already on it ma'am."

* * *

Once the quinjet holding the team was landed, I walk towards the lowering ramp. Wanda practically runs past me, Natasha steps off next, breezing past me with a half smirk, Sam next, patting my shoulder as he walks past, and then Steve steps off. When he looks at me, he knows that I know. "What can I do?" I ask him as he stops in front of me.

He lets out a sigh as he runs a hand over his head, ruffling his already messed up hair. His eyes run through the room first before finally landing on me again. A hand comes to rest on the side of my neck as he pulls me towards him and mumbles, "Come here."

Steve's lips press to mine as his other arm wraps around my waist. As our lips move in sync, complementing each other's moves, an overwhelming wave of emotion washes over me. Before the tears can fall, I pull away from Steve and wrap my arms around his neck in a hug. His arms go around me in response. "I'm glad you're okay. I'm glad you're all okay."

"A lot of people aren't though," Steve mumbles into my shoulder.

I nod my head as I pull back from him. "We'll figure it out." Steve nods his head, but we both knew that there wasn't anything the team could do now besides wait for the media storm to pass over. "Go on, get washed up. You know Hill will want a run-down of what happened." Steve presses another kiss to my temple before walking past me.

* * *

A couple weeks pass and I find myself staring at the envelope Helen had given me. I still hadn't told Steve and I didn't know why. I had tried to, many times, but I always stopped myself. I had made up my mind, today was the day no matter what. Even if I just had to throw the envelope at him. I tuck the envelope in the pocket of my skirt, the deep pocket easily hiding it.

As I'm walking down the hall towards Steve's office near the common room of the building for the team, I see him and Wanda emerge from her bedroom. I call out to Steve, who stops in his gait to turn around to face me. Wanda gives me a half smile before continuing down the hall. "How's she holding up?" I ask Steve.

Steve's head bobs side to side as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. "She'll be fine." He says. "She still feels guilty…but she'll get through it." I nod my head as we both watch her disappear out of sight. "Oh, did you need something?"

"Yeah," I say. "I, um, we need to talk." My hand slides into my pocket, clutching around the envelope.

"Is it urgent? Stark and Secretary Ross are here to discuss Nigeria…" Steve says.

"Um…" I bite the inside of my cheek. That feeling of dread I had on the morning I found out I was pregnant was back. "Kind of, but it can wait until after."

"Are you sure?" Steve says, arching an eyebrow. "They can wait-"

"No," I say waving a hand in the air, the other hand releasing the envelope and slipping out of pocket. The hand I had waved in the air comes to rest on Steve's chest. "Go to your meeting. We'll talk after."

He gives me another questioning look, making sure I was sure. "Alright. Tony said you could sit in on this meeting too, if you want." I nod my head as one of my hands intertwines with his.

* * *

The Sokovian Accords…just the phrase set me on edge. "Tell me Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" Secretary of State Ross pauses behind Steve for a moment, but Steve just stares across the table. I was sitting in the back corner of the conference area, across the room from Tony. I knew this whole ordeal was his brainchild. "If I misplaced a couple of 30 mega ton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground."

"So there are contingencies?" Rhodey asks. I look at everyone in the room: Rhodey, Sam, Natasha, Wanda, Vision, and Steve…trying to gauge their reactions. Rhodey was clearly for the Accords already.

"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords." Ross says, stopping at the head of the table once again. "So, talk it over."

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Natasha asks, her voice even and not giving anything away.

"Then you retire," Ross says. He looks at everyone one more time, waiting to see if anyone was going to speak up, and then walks out of the room.

Everyone sits in silence for another half minute before standing up. "You wouldn't have to sign," I hear Tony say. I turn to look at him to see him half-way looking at me, but not meeting my gaze. "Since you're not in the field or anything…but you're still part of the team so I thought you'd like to know what was going on."

I just nod my head before turning and following everyone else out of the room and into the common area. Once we arrive and get settled into our own spots in the room, debate breaks out. Sam and Rhodey are the only ones speaking up, going back and forth. As I had figured, Rhodey was all for signing and Sam was against it. I look over at Steve; his face burdened as he thumbed through the thick packet that was the Sokovia Accords…he did not like the Accords. "I have an equation," Vision interjects between Rhodey and Sam.

"Oh, this'll clear it up," Sam mumbles. Everyone shifts to give their attention to Vision.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of noted enhanced persons has grown exponentially." Vision says, thinking through what he was saying. "And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commissive rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve says, finally speaking up.

"I'm saying there may be a causality." Vision responds. "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe. Oversight. Oversight is not an idea that could be dismissed out-of-hand."

"Boom," Rhodey says in response to Vision. I roll my eyes as I lean back against the chair I was in; I could feel some nausea coming on and I couldn't tell if it was the pregnancy or the Accords.

"Tony," I hear Natasha say. "You're being unusually non-hyperverbal."

"It's because he's already made up his mind," Steve says.

"Boy, you know me so well," Tony deadpans as he sets up with a soft grunt. "I'm actually nursing a electromagnetic headache…that's what's going on Cap." I open my eyes and see Tony walking towards the kitchen area. "It's just pain. It's discomfort." I shut my eyes again, the thought of kitchens and food making my stomach churn. "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal?" _It helps with the stench;_ I mumble as I hear him slam something down. "Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" There was another pause before Tony continues on. "Oh, that's Charles Spencer by the way. He's a great kid." I open my eyes and look over to see a picture of a young black man projected into the air. "Computer engineering degree. 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig. An Intel plan for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul. Before he parked it behind then desk. See the world, maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam. Sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer, building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where...Sokovia. He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass. There's no decision making process here. We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, we're boundless, we're no better than the bad guys."

Steve lets out a quiet sigh as he drops the Accords down on the table in front of him. "Tony, someone dies on your watch you don't give up."

"Who said we're giving up?" Tony quips.

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions." Steve says, his voice remaining commanding and even. "This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry Steve," Rhodey cuts Steve off. "But that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not HYDRA-"

"No but it's run by people with agendas and agendas change," Steve says.

"That's good, that's why I'm here," Tony says, walking back over to the group. "When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands I shut it down, I stopped manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that." Steve says, turning towards Tony more. "We sign this, we surrender our right to choose." Tony doesn't say anything, just looks away from Steve. "What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if it's somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"If we don't do this now," Tony says, his voice a little quieter than before. "It's going to be done to us later. That's a fact; that won't be pretty."

"You're saying they'll come for me." Wanda says.

"We would protect you," Vision says.

"Maybe Tony's right," Natasha says suddenly. Everyone turns to look at her, shocked at her admission. "We have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off…"

I glance over at Steve, trying to control the look on his face. "Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss our ass a few years ago?" Sam says, not hiding the shock in his voice.

"I'm just reading the terrain." Natasha says, not really backtracking but kind of. "We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up, I'm sorry; did I just mishear you," Tony says, leaning down on the back of a chair to peer at Natasha. "Did you just agree with me?"

"I want to take it back now," Natasha says quickly.

"No, you can't retract," Tony says, but my focus is shifted as I see Steve pull his phone out of his pocket out of the corner of my eye. I watch him as he reads whatever had appeared on his phone; his face hardening. I knew that look.

"I have to go," he says as he stands up. His eyes cut to me for a second as I stand up and follow him out of the room. I follow him in silence, having to jog a couple of times to keep up with him, until we reach the door to the stair well. Once inside, I grab the crook of his elbow to stop him.

"Steve, what did the message say?" I say. His head hangs as his face is still devoid of any emotion. "What's wrong?"

He finally lets out a sigh as I drop my hand, a tiny crack in his mask appearing. "It's Peggy," he says. His voice was thick. "She…" Peggy Carter had died…I knew what he meant. He had told me a few days ago that he had received word she wasn't doing well, but I don't think he expected it to happen this fast. My own emotions start to swell up as Steve takes a step back and leans against the railing. He looked exhausted.

"I'll, um, I'll go get a flight ready," I say. "And get your suit out. Do you…do you want me to go with you?" Steve doesn't say anything, just nods his head and mumbles a quiet _please._ I nod my own head as I take a half step forward. Gently, I lay a kiss on his cheek before turning and leaving the stairwell. I knew he needed a moment to himself to grieve his friend. Once back in the common area, everyone stands and starts to ask me what had happened. "Um, Peggy Carter passed away." I say, wiping away a few of my own tears. No one says anything, just averts their eyes or hangs their head. "Sam, could you…" I tilt my head, asking him to follow me. He nods his head as we both start to head in the direction of Steve and I's apartment a few floors above. "I'm sure Steve will want you to come along as well, so would you mind getting us a flight and a hotel booked? I need to go pack our bags and-"

"I got it covered," Sam says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "You take care of Steve." I thank him as I step forward and give him a quick hug…death seemed to bring out the hugging in people that normally didn't hug each other.

Back in our bedroom, I almost numbly move around the room, packing a bag for Steve and I each. I had met Peggy once, after Sokovia. Before I left London to go back to New York, I asked Steve if I could. The doctors begrudgingly said I could and Steve was fine with it. Looking back, I think he may have been nervous for me to meet Peggy. When we did meet, we just happened to stop in on a day that she was lucid. Luckily, she already knew that Steve was alive, but she did not know that he was married. When Steve told her and the nurse wheeled me into the room, Peggy looked so happy for Steve. We stayed for nearly three hours, swapping stories and sharing laughs. It was easy to see why Steve liked her back in the day; the woman was infectious. I was sad, knowing she was gone now. But, I was even sadder for Steve, losing another piece of his past.

Once I have the bags packed, I look around the room, making sure there wasn't anything I was forgetting. My eyes land on the full length mirror mounted to the closet door. I walk over to and turn to look at my profile. If you looked hard enough, you could see the tiniest bit of a bump; honestly it just looked like I ate too much. _The big news will have to wait I guess,_ I think to myself. As I turn back towards the bags, Steve walks into the room; his eyes looking red and a little puffy. After being together as long as we have, all it takes is one look for him to ask me if I was ready to go. I nod my head as he grabs both of our bags. Funny, that we could silently communicate like that…yet I couldn't even find five minutes to tell him I'm pregnant with our child…


	18. Chapter 18

The service for Peggy was smaller than I expected. The church where it was held in London was full, but it was still a smaller church. Her niece, Sharon Carter (who I learned later that day had been Steve's neighbor in D.C. and spied on him for Fury…a piece of information that had failed to make its way to me) gave a nice eulogy, focusing on Peggy's determination and refusal to be give up in a time when it would have been easier to. After the service Steve hangs back at the church, wanting some time to himself, as Sam and I head back to the hotel.

As the car hits a pot hole, I have to swallow back the morning (or anytime of the day) sickness that was trying to escape. Once the wave of nausea is gone, I run my fingers through my hair and let out a sigh. "How far along are you?" Sam asks suddenly. My head spins towards him faster than I thought possible. He's looking at me with an eyebrow arched, letting me know it was useless to deny it. "After a few nieces and nephews plus my time overseas…you pick up on the signs. I take it Steve doesn't know?"

I shake my head as my hand lands on my non-existent bump. "I haven't…there hasn't been a good time to tell him. I found out the day you all left for Nigeria." His face relaxes as I turn to look out the window. "Have you said anything to him?"

"No, I haven't. I wasn't sure, but…" He says.

I turn my head to look at him. "I'm about ten weeks along." I say. "Please…don't tell him. I'm planning on telling him when he gets back to the hotel."

Sam nods his head as he reaches across the backseat to pat my hand. "I just don't want the kid calling me Uncle Sam."

I let out a laugh. "Oh they are so calling you that…"

* * *

I sit in the seating area of the hotel room, sipping at my water and absent-mindedly browsing pregnancy websites. Laura had warned me against them…but I guess I was a masochist. When I hear the door open, I snap the laptop shut and stand up to greet Steve. I was going to tell him, right then and there, it was going to happen…

Except Sam and Sharon Carter were with him and all of them had dread on their faces. Sam comes over next to me and turns the TV onto the news. There had been a bombing in Vienna where the United Nations were meeting to ratify the accords. Many were dead, including the King of Wakanda. That wasn't the most troubling news though. " _Officials have released a video of a suspect, identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier. The infamous HYDRA agent, linked to numerous acts of terrorism and political assassinations…"_ The reporter on the news was saying. I turn around to glance at Sharon, who was pacing behind us on the phone with someone. About the time Sam mutes the TV, Sharon ends her phone call. "I have to go to work." She says as Steve and Sam also turn to face her. "I'm assuming you all will want a ride as well?"

"Yes," Steve says, his voice strained.

"Okay," Sharon says, looking down at her phone. "There's an airfield south of the city. I'll text you the coordinates, meet me there in half an hour."

Sam and Steve tell her okay before she waltzes out of the room. None of us say anything right away, but I turn back to look at the TV again. They were showing Bucky's face again, the sight of it making me feel uneasy. "I better go pack and get checked out." Sam says. "Want me to check you all out too?"

Steve starts to agree, but I cut him off. "I'm not going to go to Vienna," I say, still staring at Bucky's face on the screen.

Sam mumbles something before leaving the room, surely afraid a fight was about to break out between Steve and I. "Rhi…I know you don't like Buck- the Winter Soldier…but you don't think he actually did this, do you?" Steve says.

"Why do they have his image near the scene if he didn't?" I say, almost numbly. My eyes finally tear away from the TV to look at Steve. A pained look was on his features…it hadn't been an easy day for him. "I don't know Steve," I let out a puff of air as I cross my arms. "I just…I just don't think I should go. To be honest, I don't think you should go either."

"He's my friend…" Steve says. "If he's in trouble then-"

"I know, I know, you think he's still your friend, your Bucky," I throw my hands in the air as my voice raises. These pregnancy hormones were getting me all out of whack. I wasn't as cold towards Bucky as I had been before he had sent the letter. I was actually starting to think of Bucky as family to Steve…the Winter Soldier was still a different story. "But Steve, you are my husband. My husband that hasn't signed the Accords and technically doesn't have the authority to bring him in-"

"Don't tell me you actually agree with the Accords," Steve says, his own voice remaining even. We hadn't actually had a chance to discuss the Accords between ourselves.

"Of course I don't," I say, rolling my eyes. "I think it's stupid and it's just Tony making a rash decision when he was feeling guilty. But that still doesn't change the fact that it is dangerous for you to go after him. Even if the guy you're wanting to go after wasn't a homicidal mani-"

"Don't talk about Bucky that way," Steve's voice wasn't as even as before now. A small part of my mind knew the comment was treading on thin ice. "You didn't know him before. He was there for me when no one else was-"

"I am here now, Steve," I say, my voice raised again. "What happens if you get arrested or, God forbid, he's not the person you think he is and he kills you? What happens then? I'm married to a fugitive? Or widowed?"

Instead of responding, Steve just stares at me. I could tell he knew there was something more going on in my mind. I had never acted like this before, even when he had gone after Bucky. I knew what was going on, I was scared. I had never been scare before; there hadn't been another person in the equation before though. "What aren't you telling me?"

I swallow and blink a couple of times. I couldn't tell him, not now. If I told him, he wouldn't go. If he didn't go, someone else would get to Bucky and a part of Steve would never forgive himself for it. I shake my head as I take a step back from him and pick up my water from earlier. "Nothing," I say. I take a sip of the water as I walk around the couch towards the bed.

"You know I've noticed you acting differently the past couple weeks," he says. I wasn't facing him, but I could feel his eye boring into the back of my head. "I haven't said anything, because I thought we didn't keep stuff from each other."

I let out a sigh as I walk over to the window, staring out at the city. Sitting the empty glass on the ledge, I cross my arms over my chest again. "I can't tell you Steve, not now." My voice sounded tired.

Steve walks over to me, placing his hands on my hips to turn me to face him. "Why not?"

"Because…" My head falls forward, resting on his chest. I pick it back up and lean back a little to look him in the eyes. "Because if I tell you, then you won't go." Confusion crosses his face. "I promise you that I am fine. But, if you don't go and something happens to Bucky you'll never forgive yourself or me. Look, you know how I feel about him…but I trust you and if you say Bucky is family to you…then go help him. Find out the truth."

Steve stares at me again as I uncross my arms and let them rest on his biceps. "Are you sure?" His eyes narrow some.

I chuckle a little as I shake my head. "No, I'm actually not." I say. "But like I said, I trust you. So go. Help Bucky." Steve leans down and kisses me before wrapping his arms around me. "I love you Steve. Just promise you'll come home to me."

"I promise," he says. The promise shocks me, mainly because we both knew there was no guarantee. "So will you go back to the compound?"

"Yeah," I say. "I'll wait a day and just head back commercially." A look crosses Steve's face. "What? We can't always take private jets-"

"It's not that…" he says, shaking his head. "I don't know…I just don't think going back to the compound would be a great idea." I raise an eyebrow, silently asking him to clarify. "Like you said, I haven't signed the Accords, and don't plan on it-"

"And who would they come after to try to track you down?" His line of reasoning made sense now. "Gotcha. So…I disappear?"

"Not so that I can't find you," he says. "But yes…for now anyways."

"Our lives are about to get real crazy…aren't they?" I ask with a smirk. Steve gives me a half smile before pulling me to his chest again.


	19. Chapter 19

After running out and purchasing a couple burner phones, to keep in contact with each other, Steve leaves with Sam. I wasn't sure where I would go…hiding wasn't a specialty of mine. I could find people, easily; but I didn't have any experience in the other side of that. There wasn't anything to do right now though…Steve wasn't technically a fugitive yet. "What are we going to do, little one?" I say, rubbing my stomach. I stop my pacing…that was the first time I'd talked to my stomach. It felt good though, almost cathartic. "Your daddy is about to do something that will get him in a lot of trouble," I say, continuing on. "I think it's the right thing to do though…I'm not sure."

The next evening, I was in Paris at our house there in Trocadéro in the 16th Arrondissement. I had a feeling it wouldn't be a good idea to stay there very long, but I could at least stay the night, figure out my next move. When I enter the house my phone buzzes, a text from Natasha. _Didn't know if you'd seen the news but Rogers was apprehended helping Barnes. I'm keeping an eye on him._

Once I have the doors locked and the lights turned on I respond: _What's going to happen to him?_

 _Not sure yet, Stark is trying to get him to sign,_ Natasha responds.

 _You know he won't,_ I tell her.

Natasha responds a few minutes later. _I know. I found the burner phone with his stuff. I assume it was to keep in contact with you if things went south. I'll hang onto it for him._

 _Thanks Nat._ I respond. There's no response back, so I set myself up in the living room for the night and try to figure out where I'm going next.

The next day I found myself in Luxembourg City. I figured it was closer to Berlin…but still far enough away to be safe. I anxiously walked around my hotel room, filed under an alias, and just waited. That was the worst part; just waiting to hear any kind of news. Finally that evening, I got a call from Natasha, but not on my regular cell. "Why are you calling me on the burner?"

"Because Rogers is in serious trouble," she says. "And you don't need to be dragged into it anymore."

"What do you mean anymore?" I ask, sitting down in a chair. "And what happened with Steve?"

"Barnes' switched flipped and he escaped. Rogers, of course, went after him." She tells me. "Ross wants Tony and me to bring him and Wilson in with Barnes."

"Freaking Steve…" I mumble. "Have you heard from them-"

"No, and it's going to stay that way," she says. "Look, Ross wants you brought in as well for questioning. You wouldn't be under arrest or anything…"

"But they think if they bring me in Steve will turn himself in," I say. Natasha confirms that theory. "What should I do Nat?" I was at a loss.

"Don't tell me where you are but are you in Berlin?" she asks. I tell her I'm not. "Okay, stay wherever you are. Get rid of your phone. Stay indoors. You know the measures needed to track people, shouldn't be hard for you to stay hidden."

I nod my head even though she can't see it. Tears were starting to form in my eyes and a lump was growing in my throat. "Nat…I know it'll go against your orders probably but please, _please,_ watch out for him. I can't…I can't lose him."

"I know," Natasha says quietly. "I'll do what I can." Without another word she hangs up.

* * *

"I'm not sure you understand the concept of a get-a-way car," Sharon says to me as I walk towards her.

I shrug as I glance back at the dark blue VW bug. "It's low profile," I say.

"Good," she says, inserting a key into the trunk of her car. "Because this stuff tends to draw a crowd." When she opens the trunk, I almost smile at seeing the shield.

"Thank you, Sharon," I say. "I owe you again."

"We'll just add it to the list." She glances back towards the car to look at Sam and Bucky, giving them a small wave. "You know he tried to kill me."

"Another thing to the list," I mumble.

"Not to make that list too long," she says, reaching into her vest pocket. "But Natasha wanted me to make sure you got this." I don't recognize the phone at first, but then the recognition kicks in: _Rhiannon._ "She's safe, last I heard. Of course Ross wants her brought in for questioning…but she must have figured that out because no one can find her."

I nod my head as I take the phone from her. "Thank you."

"I met her a couple times when we worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. thought she seemed nice, a little dorky, but nice. Damn good with a computer." Sharon says. I smile a little, remember back to when I had first met her as well. "Aunt Peg mentioned her…about a month back or so." My head snaps up to look at her. "Said she was glad you got a girl that had some sense about her. Was a little sore you didn't invite her to the wedding…" We both chuckle a little. "But she was happy for you. Rhiannon is good one. She's smart…she'll be fine."

"Thank you Sharon," I say again. She reaches out and pats the top of my arm before we both grab the equipment out of the trunk of her car.

* * *

Almost twenty-four hours after I had heard from Natasha, my burner phone finally rings. I pick it up after one ring. "Steve?"

"It's me," he says, sounding tired. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say. "Going a little stir-crazy from staying inside so much, but I'm fine. You?"

"I've been worse," he says. "Tony was supposed to bring us in and he brought help: Nat, Rhodey, Vision, and some kid from Queens. Wilson, Barton, Wanda, and Scott Lange didn't make it out with me and-"

Steve stops his sentence. "Bucky is with you?" I ask.

"He's Bucky, Rhiannon. I promise." He says. "That's not the problem right now though. There are more Winter Soldiers and this Zemo guy wants to release them. We've got to stop him."

I let out a sigh as I sit on the edge of my bed. "Can you put me on speaker?" Steve starts to protest but I cut him off. "I'm not going to…whatever you think I'm going to do. I just…I have something I want to say to him." Steve finally agrees and a second later I hear the undeniable echo of being on speaker phone. "Bucky?"

There was an elongated pause before an unrecognizable voice responds. "Yes ma'am?"

I shut my eyes, trying to calm myself down. "I just have one thing to say to you: I don't know what Steve has told you about my past with you but only one thing matters right now. You better have Steve's back. Because if my husband doesn't come home to me…I'm holding you responsible." I leave out how I've already lost one man in my life to his hands.

"I understand." He says.

"Good," I say. "Steve?"

"Yes?" he says.

"I love you…come back to me, okay?"

* * *

"I love you too," I tell her. She says a quiet goodbye before the line goes dead. I slip the phone back into the cargo pocket on my leg while my grip on the steering wheel of the jet tightens.

A silence sets between Bucky and I. About five minutes later, he speaks up. "I still can't believe you got married," he says. A small grin quirks up the corner of my lips. "Always thought it'd be me first. Well, before…"

"Yeah," I say. "Life hasn't gone exactly according to plan, has it?"

Bucky was silent for a couple more minutes. "I killed her father, didn't I?" I don't say anything, my brow furrowing together. "I remember it…kind of. I remember her too; she shot at me."

"That's what she told me," I say. It seemed like ages ago when she told me that story. "Let me ask you something-"

"Why didn't I fire back at her?" He knew where I was going with the question. As glad as I am that he didn't fire back at her, it would've been the logical thing to do. "I was ordered not to. Just him, not her." It still didn't add up to me, she was a witness. I wasn't going to press the matter further though. "She's pretty, from what I can remember."

"She's beautiful," I say, my heart clenching; I missed her, felt guilty she was in hiding. "But thank you. Your differences aside, I think you two would get along with each other."

"I saw you two…in Corsica." I turn my head to look back at him; his head was hung, like he felt guilty. "There had been something on the news… _Captain America weds civilian…_ had to see for myself if it was true. I'm sorry if I startled her."

"It's alright," I say, half way mumble.

"You always did have a thing for brunettes…what's up with that?" Bucky cracks at me. I could hear the attempt at a joke in his voice. "Regardless, she seems good for you. Not many gals would let their man run off to help a former assassin."

"No," I say, shaking my head. "Not many."

* * *

I let out a sigh as Tony taps the coordinates for the HYDRA base into his watch. I still wasn't sure if telling him was a good idea…but Steve and Bucky were going to need all the backup they could get. "And what about the missus? Where's Rhiannon at Wilson?"

I shake my head adamantly. "No, Tony," I say. "I'm not telling you where she is."

"I can keep her safe," he says. "Has she been helping Rogers?"

"No," I tell him. "She's been in hiding. No one, not even Steve knows where she is."

"If she continues to run, she'll get herself in even more trouble," Tony says. "Why risk that?"

I knew why she wouldn't go near any of these people with a ten foot pole; with the secret she had it was easy to figure out. I start to say some wisecrack, but stop when Wanda suddenly starts laughing maniacally. It was the first sound I'd heard her make the entire time we'd been at the prison. Tony moves down to her cell to ask her what's so funny. "I knew you were heartless Tony," she says, her accent thicker somehow. _She knows,_ I realize, _she knows about Rhiannon._ Of course the mind reader would know. I yell out to her to keep quiet, but Tony urges her on. "I knew you were heartless," she says again. "But going after an innocent pregnant woman…that's a whole new low…"

The room goes silent as I look down the line as much as I can towards Tony. He steps back from Wanda's cell, dumbfounded. He looks down at me, the shock not wearing off. Suddenly, his watch beeps and he looks down at it. When he looks back up, the look of shock was covered by a mask. "Well Wilson, I'll be sure to keep a room down below nice and toasty for you," he says before striding out of the room. I had no clue what he was talking about…but I just prayed to a god I didn't know if I believed in that he didn't tell Steve that Rhiannon was pregnant.


	20. Chapter 20

I knew not sleeping and stressing myself out was not good for the baby, but I could not fall asleep knowing that Steve was going after an apparent army of Winter Soldiers. Just when I think I'm on the brink of sleep, a series of knocks on the door jolts me wide awake. I quietly creep over to the door to try to listen to whoever was on the other side. I had nothing to defend myself with, but I wouldn't go quietly. As I'm laying my ear against the door, the voice on the other side makes me jump. "It's me Rhiannon. I'm alone, open up." I swing the door open to Natasha, wearing a brown wig, and a large duffel bag in her hand and an envelope in the other. "Well you look as stressed out as I thought you would."

I wave in her, shutting and locking the door once she's in. "Do I even want to know how you found me?" I was a little sore, I thought I had done a good job on hiding.

"The burner phone," she says. "I stole the number from Steve's phone and then traced you that way. No one else has the number."

"Okay," I say nodding my head. "Are you here to take me in?"

"No," she says. "I'm actually on the run myself." She peels the wig off, ruffling her natural hair. "Steve and Bucky have me to thank for getting out of Berlin."

"The duffel bag?" I ask, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Some stuff from the compound of you and Steve's," she says, setting the bag on a nearby table. "Figure you two won't be going back anytime soon."

I nod my head again, peering at the envelope…it looked familiar. "Envelope?"

Her eyes narrow slightly. "You know, I had my suspicions…you running to the bathroom all the time…your boobs are at least two sizes bigger…that one time I caught you crying over that car commercial. Then, I'm grabbing some clothes for you and I find this envelope tucked in the underwear drawer…"

I hang my head. " _Shit…"_ I mutter. When I look back at her, Natasha has a smug look on her face. "Does everyone know…but Steve?"

"Well that explains why he went after Barnes," she says, sitting down in a chair. I follow suit and sit in one across from her.

"I was going to tell him after the funeral…then that explosion in Vienna happened and…"

"You picked a hell of a time to get knocked up," Natasha says. She was clearly excited though. Despite her tough, super-spy exterior…Natasha Romanov loved children.

"It wasn't even supposed to be possible," I say with a sigh. "The doc told us there was less than a one-in-a-billion chance."

"You should buy lottery tickets," she responds.

I shake my head as I chuckle. "Oh, what am I going to do Nat?" I say. "Have you heard from Steve?"

"A source told me T'Challa, the king of Wakanda, brought in Zemo a few hours ago from a HYDRA base in Siberia." Nat says, picking at a piece of lint on the arm of the chair. "Says he didn't see Rogers or Barnes. Neither did Stark…who was apparently beat to hell and had Steve's shield." A heavy silence settles between us. I don't think she thought out what she was telling me before she told me. "Oh, shit, you aren't going to pass out on me are-"

"Nat…" I say in a controlled voice. If I moved or anything I think I would pass out. Why did Tony have Steve's shield…why was Tony beat to hell…why did this T'Challa guy say he didn't see Steve? Where was my husband? "Hand me that phone over on the nightstand." I don't even see her stand up and walk over to retrieve it. I barely feel her press the phone into my hand. As if moving on auto-pilot, I pull up the number for Steve's burner phone…it goes straight to voicemail. I try it again…same result. I shut the flip phone and sit it down on the table next to my chair. "It went straight to voicemail."

"Rhiannon…he-"

"I am going to sit right here," I cut her off. "Because if I do move or get up I will freak out. I cannot freak out though because I have a baby growing inside of me. I want you to leave and I want you to find out what you can about my husband. You call me as soon as you find _anything_ out. Do you understand?"

On normal circumstances I would never, _ever,_ take that tone with Natasha; but lucky I had the crazy pregnant lady excuse to back me up. Natasha stands up and walks over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I vaguely hear her say she'll call when she finds something out. A glass of water appears next to me and I hear the door shut with a click. I numbly stand and walk over to it to lock it, returning to my chair. I sit there…and sit there…not moving, not talking, and not thinking. I absently sip at the water, but I can't even taste it or register it. I sit there like that…at least six hours until my phone rings. I pick it up slowly, answering with a zombie like, "Hello?"

"I found someone who knows where Steve is," Natasha's voice says on the other end.

"What did he say?" I ask, not letting any of the relief swelling inside me to flow.

"This line isn't secure anymore," she says instead of answering. "Destroy the phone, the guy will be at your location in ten minutes with information. This is as far as I can help you though."

"Thank you Natasha," I say. The line goes dead instead of her responding. I shut the phone and walk over to the bathroom sink. After taking out the sim card, I crack the phone in half and place it under the running water. The sim card gets smashed and bent by the small coffee pot in the room. Once the remains of the phone are in the trash, I move to the center of the room and stare at the door. Mentally, I count down the minutes; it had already been five minutes since Natasha had called… _six…seven…eight…nine…te-_ right on the dot, a quick succession of knocks pound on the door. I slowly move to the door and start to unlock it. "Who is it?" I ask before opening the door.

There was a pause, an agonizingly long pause, before the person on the other side answers. "Open it and find out," the familiar, relief inducing voice says. Quicker than I thought possible, I throw the door open. It was Steve…wearing clothes totally out of character for him, sunglasses, and a hat…but it was Steve. I throw myself in his arms as he walks into the room. Vaguely I hear the door shut behind him. "I'm so glad you're okay," he whispers in my ear.

Not surprisingly, I start crying. Steve holds me close to his chest until the sobs subside. "What happened…Nat said Tony had your shield…and that he was beat up…and who's-"

"I promise I will explain everything to you," Steve says, holding me at arm's length. "But right now we need to get going." I nod my head as Steve moves to grab my bag Natasha had brought me and I move to pack my belongings I had bought between here and London. When both bags are packed up, we leave the room, hand-in-hand…I didn't plan on letting him out of my sight for quite a while, no matter who needed saving.

When I see the jet, landed in the middle of a clearing in the forest we had just trekked through, Steve pulls on my hand lightly, slowing our gait. "Just warning you, we have a few extra passengers…"

My eyebrows scrunch together as the ramp to the jet lowers. I could see a gaggle of people; I just couldn't make them out yet. As we approach it, I can make out their faces. "That's more than I few," I mumble. So far I could see, Bucky, Sam, Scott Lange, and Wanda. When we start walking up the ramp, I see Clint and his family as well. "What are you all-"

"Let's get airborne…then we can talk," Clint says. He pats my arm once. "Glad to see you're okay kid."

I mutter thanks as he moves to the front of the plane, the ramp lifting back into position. Everyone sits in a seat and straps in to prepare for take-off. I look around at everyone; Sam, Scott, and Wanda looked like hell…Laura and the kids looked out of place and scared…Bucky was missing his- "What happened to you?" I say to him, my voice sounding harsher than I had meant for it to. He was sitting straight across from me, only Sam was sitting next to him, so making eye contact with him was easy. He looked like hell…but his eyes looked sad. My stomach drops as I feel the jet lift into the arm and then dart off into the sky, heading who knows where.

He follows the dart of my eyes to his missing metal arm. "Making sure you're husband made it home to you," he says. I thought I saw a glint of playful mischief in his eyes, but it was gone as soon as it appeared.

My hand instinctively tightens around Steve's. I nod my head once. "Thank you," I say. "And…you know…sorry you lost your arm…again." I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard Steve let out a little chuckle. I know I saw Sam hid a laugh. An hour later, everyone had their belts off; a couple people were moseying around the plane. After a couple hours, Steve takes over for Clint flying. When he's in the pilot's seat, Laura stands up from her seat, letting Clint act as pillow to their sleeping children.

She walks over to me, taking Steve seat. "How are you doing?" she asks in a hushed tone.

"I'm better," I say.

"No, I mean…" her eyes dart down towards my stomach. "I take it certain people…or person doesn't know?"

I shake my head. "I feel like I've been hit by a dump truck…repeatedly." I say. "But I'll be fine."

"When was the last time you slept?" She asks, clearly more worried about me than I was. "Or ate? You know-"

"Laura, please," I say in a whisper. "I know, I know. But the last few days have been above normal stressful. When we land…wherever…I will eat and sleep, okay?"

Laura purses her lips, but doesn't say anything else.

* * *

When the jet lands in the hangar in Wakanda, I let out a sigh of relief. Breaking everyone out of prison, collecting Laura and the kids, plus tracking down Rhiannon had been a lot to do in one day; but I got everyone back safely. As the ramp to the jet lowers, I start towards the back of the jet. When I look at Rhiannon, concern creeps up me. She looked pale and beyond exhausted, _had she looked that way when I took over flying?_ "Hey," I say as she stands up, a little shaky. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she says, giving me a forced smile. Immediately I knew she was lying. "I just need some sleep…stressful few days." She wraps an arm through mine as we start to follow everyone else off the jet. In the distance I could see T'Challa and his crew of people walking towards us. "Where are wee-" Her sentence trails off as she passes out. I catch her easily, Bucky right there as well offering his one arm to catch her. We lower her to the ground gently. I try waking her, but she won't stir. I immediately check her pulse and it was weak. I look up to yell for someone to get a medic when I see Laura whispering something to T'Challa. A grave look crosses his face as he yells out in his native tongue, likely calling for a medic.

"Here," he says, coming over to us. He moves in front of Bucky and starts to pick Rhiannon up. "I will run her to the medical bay…she needs assistance immediately." I don't say anything, just nod my head as he lifts her into the air. I follow closely behind him; as I run behind him I quickly glance at everyone else's faces, who were wearing the same grave look T'Challa had…why did I feel like they all knew something I didn't?


	21. Chapter 21

I slowly start to wake up, a quiet beeping immediately alerting me to where I was. "I'm getting really tired of waking up in hospitals…" I groan, my eyes still closed.

I hear a quiet chuckle, from Steve, as I feel him give my hand a light squeeze. "I'm going to grab the nurse," he says. I nod my head; I was familiar with the routine. I try to open my eyes, the room I was in was very bright, and I felt exhausted. Trying to think back to the last thing I remembered, I remembered that I had passed out as we were leaving the jet. My eyes shoot open this time, looking around. I glance down at my stomach, but my attention is pulled to the door as Steve enters with a woman dressed in a navy dress and white lab coat. She was strikingly beautiful.

"How is the patient feeling?" she says, smiling widely at me.

"Ummm…" I wasn't sure how to answer. I was worried about how the baby was doing…but I didn't want to say anything in front of Steve incase he didn't know yet.

The doctor must have picked up on this. "I'm sure better since you've gotten some rest and some fluids in you," she says, lightly pressing her fingers to the inside of my wrist to feel my pulse. I look from her to Steve, who was staring at both of us with curious glances; he still didn't know. "As I had guessed, you just passed out from exhaustion and touch of dehydration. But, with your condition it was exacerbated."

"Her condition?" Steve says, his hands dropping to his sides. "You just said that she-"

"I will let your wife explain," the doctor says, never losing the smile. "But, rest assured, she will be fine. I'll be back later to check on you."

I thank her as she leaves the room. Steve still stares at me curiously. "So…what's this 'condition'?" he says, moving to sit in the seat by the bed. "Because you wouldn't tell me in London. And, as I said, I had a feeling something was going on. Now, you're passing-"

"Honey, you're rambling," I say, smiling at him. I ask him to help me move to the edge of the bed, so I can face him full-on. Once I'm situated, he moves his chair so that he's close enough that our knees are touching and our hands are wound together. "When you left to get Rumlow, I told you that the doctor said I didn't have food poisoning or the flu, as I had thought," I say. Steve nods his head, absorbing every word I was saying. "I lied, though, when I told you he didn't know what was wrong with me…" Steve was staring at me intently, his eyes wide and expectant. "Steve…I'm pregnant."

The world seems to go still. Steve's face doesn't move. He stares at me for a full two minutes before his head falls and he bends over, his head in my lap for all intents and purposes. For a second I think _he's_ passed out; until I see his shoulders start moving and feel wetness on my hands. Steve was crying; not the silent tears that he had shed at Peggy's funeral, but heavy sobs. I take one of my hands and move it to his back to rub soothing circles. This was not the reaction I had been expecting. After a minute, he picks his head back up and without looking at me, presses his lips to mine. My hands land on the sides of his face as tears of my own start to fall. When Steve pulls back, he's smiling widely. "I love you so much," he says. I repeat the sentiment back to him as he leans back a little, one of his hands resting on my stomach. "We're having a baby?"

I look at Steve and the look on his face takes my breath away. I hadn't seen this much joy on his face since our wedding day. "Yeah," I say, nodding my head.

Steve's eyebrows furrow together a little bit, but the joy was still on his face. "But I thought the doctor said-"

I shrug a shoulder. "I think we were due some good news," I say. Steve chuckles in agreement. I continue to look at him as his hands move to rest on my hips and he stares at my stomach. The longer he stares at it though, the more his face falls. "Steve, what's wrong?"

"Me," he says. "What if- the super soldier serum…what if-"

"Did you bring my bags in here?" I ask him. Steve nods his head before I tell him to grab the envelope out of the front pocket of one of the bags. When he comes back over with it, he sits on the bed next to me. "I thought about that too, right after I found out. So, while you were in Lagos, I went to see Helen," Steve arches an eyebrow at me, prompting me to roll my eyes. "That really shouldn't shock you. Anyway, she ran a battery of tests and everything looked normal. Except the metabolism looked high which probably explains me passing out. All of the results are in that envelope though." Steve stares down at the envelope in his hands. "Oh, and I should probably mention that some of your over-perceptive teammates figured it out before I could tell you."

Steve rolls his eyes this time. "Who was it-"

"Pretty much everyone," Sam says from the doorway. We both look up to see him leaning against the doorway. "Just came to check up on you," he says as he starts to walk into the room.

"It wasn't everyone," I say, shaking my head at him as he sits down in the chair across from us. "It was just you and Natasha-"

"And Wanda, who told Tony and Lange and Barton…" Sam says.

"Geez, it's my kid and I was the last to know," Steve says.

"I didn't tell all them!" I say, my voice going higher. "The only person I told was Laura…the rest of you just figured it out."

"I know," Steve says before pressing a kiss to my temple. "We're just giving you a hard time."

"Oh, also wanted to let you know that Bucky is ready for you," Sam says. "When Dr. Zimsay told us Rhiannon was awake, he said he was ready to go under."

I look over at Steve who nods his head. "Okay, I'll be there shortly." Sam nods his head and throws us both a 'congratulations' before leaving the room.

"What does he mean, 'go under'," I ask Steve.

"Bucky has decided to be put in a chryochamber again," Steve says. "He doesn't feel comfortable being in the world when part of his mind is still under control of the Winter Soldier."

I nod my head; there was no way I could argue with that logic. It was actually very considerate; much like the Bucky Steve had told me about. "Can I go with you?" I ask. "When you go see him?"

"I don't-"

"Please, Steve," I say, placing a hand on his arm. "I need to."

Steve stares at me for a few moments before finally nodding his head. "Okay, let's see if it's okay with the doctor if you can leave."

* * *

I was growing more nervous as we neared the lab where Bucky was. Rhiannon was insistent that she needed to see Bucky; it still made me nervous. I knew, or thought I knew, her feelings towards him; a million different possibilities were running through my mind on what she was going to do. As we enter the lab, a lab assistant steps away from Bucky sitting on a table, revealing the mesh cover over his new stump. Bucky looks at both of us, first me and then nervously at Rhiannon, as we come to a stop in front of him. A silence falls over all of us as Rhiannon and Bucky just stare at each other. Bucky quickly glances at me before looking down. "How are you feeling?" he asks, his voice quiet.

"I'm feeling better," Rhiannon says, her voice controlled. I recognized that voice, she was choosing her words carefully. "Thank you for asking." Bucky continues to stare down, not looking up at her. Another minute of silence passes before Rhiannon speaks up. "Steve said you're putting yourself to sleep again?"

"Yeah," Bucky halfway mumbles. "It's better for everyone if I do."

Rhiannon just nods her head, still staring at him. "Look at me," she says suddenly, her voice sterner. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up; in all the years we'd been together I'd never heard her talk like that. Bucky slowly lifts his head, his eyes meeting hers. She stares at him for another moment, taking a slow deep breath before finally speaking. "The last time I saw you…you had killed my father-"

"Rhi, he-"

"Don't interrupt me Steve," she says, not even looking at me. "The last time I saw you…you had taken away the only family I had."

I look at Bucky, who hadn't looked away from her. He swallows once before speaking. "I know," he says. "I remember."

"Are you sorry," Rhiannon says, a small shake in her voice.

"I am," Bucky responds. "I'm sorry."

Rhiannon shuts her eyes for a moment. When she opens them, I start to take a step closer to them as she steps towards Bucky. I stop though when she places a hand over Bucky's. He starts to pull it away, but she tightens her grip on it. "I forgive you…Bucky." Bucky's eyes go wide; I'm sure mine do too. That was the last thing I was expecting her to say. "As Steve has told me…numerous times…you weren't you. You weren't Bucky. You're Steve's family…I can't hold this against you forever."

"I don't deserve that," Bucky says. "You don't have to-"

"Yes, I do," Rhiannon says. "I've recently been reminded of the importance of family. As I said, you're Steve's family…so by default you're my family."

Bucky stares at her for a moment before looking over at me, wearing a half grin. "I wasn't going to say it before…but she's way too good for you."

I nod my head. "Yeah, I know."

Rhiannon looks at me also and rolls her eyes playfully. "Yeah…try being married to _'Captain America',"_ she says with a snort of laughter. "The golden boy of America."

"Oh, I could tell you some stories about 'the golden boy'," Bucky says, giving Rhiannon a half smile as well.

She laughs out loud before placing a hand on her stomach. Now that I knew, I could see the smallest of bumps… _my kid._ "Well, good," she says. "I need someone to share those stories with this little one."

Bucky's eyes go wide again as he processes the information. He looks at me and I nod my head. "Well…" he says, shaking his head. "Don't worry, I've got some good ones to tell."

"Good…Uncle Buck," Rhiannon says.

Bucky slides off the table and turns to me. "Congratulations…Pops," he says before giving me a hug. I mutter a thanks as we release and he turns to Rhiannon. He moves to hug her, but then stops. She notices, so she reaches up and wraps her arms around his shoulders. After a second, he reciprocates.

When she steps back, she clears her throat. "Now, what is this business about you going into a cryochamber?"

Bucky reaches a hand up, scratching at his brow. "It's better for everyone if I do," Bucky answers. "With the stuff still in my head-"

"I'm sorry, but that is bullshit," Rhiannon says, cutting him off. Bucky meets her eyes again, and raises an eyebrow at her.

"What-"

"You heard me, that's bull." She crosses her arms over her chest as she turns to me. "You've told him that this is a dumb idea…right?"

I shake my head slightly as I feel Bucky look at me also. "Well, I mean, I don't like that he's—but you know, it's really his choice—"

"And it is a stupid choice," she says, throwing her hands in the air. Bucky and I share a confused glance before she speaks again. "Look, what you went through was traumatic and changed you and all of that. But it is not something that you hide from until someone else comes up with something to fix you. This is something you have to face and fix yourself…and you know, with family behind you supporting you. Plus really good therapists…oh, I know Tony was working-"

"Yeah, no, Tony is definitely not going to help us with anything," I cut her off. She arches an eyebrow in question and I murmur that I'd explain later.

"Well, regardless," she says, turning back to Bucky. "My point remains the same. I'm not an expert…but I just think that going back into a cryochamber is a bad idea. I know that you aren't the same Bucky that Steve knew growing up, but from the stories I've been told, that Bucky would not have ran away from this and that is exactly what going in that cryochamber is doing…running away from your problems."

I look back and forth between the two people standing before me: Rhiannon, my five foot five inch pregnant wife and Bucky, my best friend-turned-master assassin-turned friend again, both of them staring each other down. A solid minute passes before either of them move. Bucky reaches up with his hand, pushing some of his hair behind his ear. He turns to look at me, a blank look on his face. "I get it now." Now it was my turn to arch an eyebrow in confusion. Instead of answering though, Bucky just shakes his head as a corner of his mouth turns up in a smile. "Alright. I'll give his whole 'facing it' thing a try."

A smile breaks across Rhiannon's face. She starts to say something and then stops, shutting her eyes and pressing her fingers to her lips. "I am glad to hear that," she says, her voice sounding strained. "But if you will excuse me a moment—" Bucky and I both start to follow after her as she turns and starts to run, but then stop when she stops at a nearby trash can. I quickly walk over to her, pulling her hair back as she throws up. "Friggin morning sickness," she groans once the sickness is passed. I hand her a napkin that Bucky had retrieved for her. "Thank you." She says, smiling at me before wiping her mouth off. "I am going to go brush my teeth and lay down for a bit. Still kind of exhausted from…you know, hiding from multiple government agencies, not knowing if my husband was dead or alive for six hours, passing out, and now talking my husband's friend out of turning sleeping beauty on us."

I shake my head at her before pressing a kiss to her temple. "Alright, I'll be right behind you." She smiles at me and waves at Bucky once more before walking out of the room. When she's gone, I turn back to Bucky. "Well…that was all…"

"Unexpected?" Bucky finishes. I nod my head as he shakes his. "Yeah…definitely unexpected. But at the same time…appreciated. She's right…this is something I'm going to have to face on my own."

I reach out and place a hand on his shoulder. "You won't be alone though." Bucky nods his head as I drop my hand. "And…Uncle Buck does have a nice ring to it…"

Bucky shake his head again, smiling this time. "Married…and a dad…you deserve it though."

"Thanks Buck," I tell him. "Hey, what did you mean by 'I get it now'?"

Bucky smirks at me, his eyes darting to the door between looking back at me. "I just meant I get why you two are together now. She's tough...can handle anything."

* * *

A little while later, I find Rhiannon in the room T'Challa had given me to stay in; her back to the door and curled up on the bed. As quietly as I could, I slip off my shoes and jacket before crawling onto the bed and laying down next to her. "I'm not quite asleep yet," she murmurs as she moves closer to lay next to me; her body curving, creating a little spoon against me.

"It's hard to tell with you," I say, wrapping an arm over her waist and letting my hand rest on her stomach. Her hand comes over mine as she lets out a contented sigh.

"Morning, or as I've had it any-time-of-the-day sickness should be wearing off this week or next," she says. "And the little one is hovering around two inches…at least that's what the little chart Helen gave me said." I nod my head, a huge smile on my face as I press a kiss to the back of her head. "I'll start gaining weight like crazy too. Especially with this one and their sped-up metabolism they got from you…I'm eating all the time…hope you won't mind being married to a whale…"

"The most beautiful whale in the world," I say, holding her closer to me. "You'll always be perfect…no matter what."

"You say that now when I'm not torturing you with my crazy pregnancy hormones." We both laugh quietly before a calm settles over both of us. Rhiannon's thumb lazily strokes the back of my head as we lay there. After a few moments, she speaks up again. "We're gonna be okay here, right?"

"Yeah," I say, pulling her closer to me again. Her other hand comes up, gently grabbing onto my bicep. "As long as we're together, we'll be fine." I press another kiss to the back of her head as she nods it. For the first time in a while, I was content…happy. "I promise you…I'll keep you both safe."

 _À suivre..._


End file.
